Rick Tumlinson

2012 will be seen as the beginning of the frontier era in space. By 2030 there will be people on the Moon, on Mars, and in the free space between worlds. The first permanent communities beyond Earth will be founded, the first major products and inventions created there will have...

It's been a couple of weeks since the NASA budget came out and fingers are still pointing as to who screwed up where, whose program ate what budget and why, and why is mine being singled out while yours is being kept alive? Meanwhile, in partial answer to that question,...

I will get back to my series on the "Why?" of space later this week. In the meantime, knowing that by the end of the week the issue will be used up and gone for a bit, I must comment on the Newt Gingrich space speech in Florida and the...

This month I began a series of postings entitled: "Why space?" as part of an explanation as to why so many of us, from geeks to dot com billionaires and others, are so passionate about what is about to happen in space, just as others decry the end of the...

Given this is the inauguration of a new science section, I thought I might step away from the moment by moment politics of the space field and do a bit of priming and explanation for what people see happening in the human space arena, yet many misunderstand -- as was...

Dear Mars Science Laboratory team,
Thank you!

In the middle of a completely absurd debate about how much U.S. taxpayer money should be put into the pockets of congressional donors in the name of not building government rockets that will not support the opening of space in any way,...

His friends call him "Norm". His grandkids call him "PaPaw". His children call him "Dad" and when he is a bit tough, driving us hard or we feel sentimental, we call him "Sarge" -- short for Technical Sargeant Norman O. Tumlinson, United States Air Force.

You see, my dad (like...

There are moments in time when a decision or set of decisions that may not seem important when judged against the cacophony of transient background noise can change the destiny of nations and indeed humanity as a whole. This is exactly such a time, and a few key decisions made...

Last week, Russia's Progress cargo vehicle, bound for the International Space Station (ISS) and carrying a load of supplies for several months to the astronauts waiting in orbit, was destroyed during launch. The vehicle, once attached to the station, was designed to also be able to fire its...

The shuttle program ended this week just as we celebrated the 42nd anniversary of Apollo. It is poetic and yet sad. It also begs the question, what next?

Some, even heroes of Apollo, whine and lament the end of exploration and what they see as the death of our American...

This week, the shuttle program ends and we "celebrate" the anniversary of Apollo, when humans first walked on the moon. Yet, many question if we ever went. Why? Because if we had why aren't we still there and far beyond?

Our national human space program has failed -- if the...

No bucks, no Buck Rogers. It's one of the tritest phrases in space policy debates, often used to wheedle more money from doubtful taxpayers.

Well, that isn't going to work this time around, no matter how pretty the PowerPoints. But we still want to do great things, and send...

Given the current fiscal climate, it is sad to see that some in Congress (oddly led by so-called fiscally conservative Republicans) are pushing hard for billions of our tax dollars to be spent on space projects that are being cancelled, sending hundreds of millions to the Russians so they can...

In the first decade of this century, the old US space establishment was handed the chance to begin an amazing quest to return to the Moon and explore Mars, and blew it -- by applying a 20th century state socialist solution to a 21st century frontier challenge, adopting the hardware...

The US space program is in the midst of a historic revolution. The White House's plan to hand over low Earth orbit activities to the rising US commercial space sector and focus the agency on far ranging exploration goals is a complete re-set of our space program.

In the last...

Over the last months, the space field has witnessed one of the most brutal and hard fought battles in its history. In the space equivalent of a guerrilla war, those trying to change this nation's program into an effective and frontier opening enterprise have been fighting almost cubicle by cubicle...

In the coming weeks some in Congress will try to kill America's future in space as they desperately work to prop up the tax sucking, pork eating dreamslaying monster known as the Constellation rocket program. Right now a bought and paid for cabal of hypocritical puppets in the House and...

Neil Armstrong and a couple of other Moon walkers took a very uninformed and unhelpful shot at the new space program laid out by our new NASA leadership. Unfortunately and as painful as it is for me to say -- Armstrong is wrong. I and many others working on the...

Change is coming to the US space program. At last! Real, dramatic and tangible change in both its effect and the course it will create in this nation's future in space.

It is long past time for us to try something different, as what we have been doing in our...

President Obama bet his legacy and the nation on the creativity, energy and drive of the American people. His entire persona is that of a man bent on creating a better future, placing the long and short bets that will insure the US remains the most vital and creative nation...