Keith’s note: Frank Sietzen is currently in the Intensive Care Unit at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC after having suffered a stroke at the beginning of September. Frank is awake and in stable condition and is making steady progress. We’ll be providing updates on his progress in the days and weeks to come. Visit his Recovery Page on Facebook for more information. Keith’s update: Frank is OUT of […]

Frank Sietzen, Jr: “As the final flights of the Space Shuttle draw near, already some of us are awash in nostalgia for the winged beast, not withstanding its ruinous cost. For nearly a majority of Americans now living, there has never been an American spacecraft other than the Shuttle. Generation after generation have been born and grown to adulthood with the Shuttle missions flying, in many respects, transparently in the […]

Frank Sietzen, Jr.: Seemingly lost among the noise following last week’s actions of the House Commerce and Science Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee on marking up a NASA budget is the issue of the agency’s proposed new technology programs. Both the House and Senate sharply cut the Obama Administration’s original request. As of this writing no dissent has been heard from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, so the […]

Frank Sietzen Jr.: Last week, the Senate Commerce, Science and Space Committee marked up a draft of a proposed FY2011 Authorization bill for NASA. That bill maintains the Obama administration’s top line budget for the civil space agency, but otherwise it contains virtually none of the individual funding areas for human spaceflight that the administration had sought. But it’s my contention that the bill, whether or not it ever gets […]