The US Space Retreat: The Shuttle Era Is Over. Will the Next Man on the Moon Be Chinese?

1. Glenn Reynolds and Jerry Pournelle talk about post Shuttle era
2. Happy or sad occasion?  JP says both.  No follow on.  No longer have manned space program.
3. Military tactic of taking high ground has been sacrificed
4. Bad news, now the good news: commercial space moving fast
5. Private enterprise can do it, need to guarantee a market though, gives an example of a moon colony
6. Shuttle wasn't created just to take people to space, bureaucracy was goal, not space
7. Logistics of Apollo was military, example was D Day, Apollo itself
8. Apollo 20 mission, wasn't one, won the race, but left with army with nothing to do, needed to employ them, that was Shuttle's mission
9. Will commercial succeed long term?  Have to disband standing army.
10. Lost Challenger because SRB can't be made in Utah, had to break it up into pieces, bad idea
11. Main engines overstressed, caused Shuttle to fail mission
12. Series of prizes might do it

Update:

I am adding Jerry Pournelle's blog to my sidebar.