Sean O'Keefe named as NASA Administrator

> I don't really know, but my suspicion is that there is no silver bullet
> that will suddenly make everything sweetness and light with respect to ISS
> Alpha. It will be a long hard struggle between goals and budgets,
> between things that people want and that which Congress and the
> Administration are willing to fund. Expectations for the new
> administrator may be higher than what he can deliver.

They always are. My impression of all the administrators is that it
is their job to spend money in the politically identified ways;
pork barrel politics all the way, i.e. they are puppets

> By the way, in the last few weeks, some of Goldin's statements that I've
> read have been right on target. He's called for the full privatization
> of the shuttle fleet. I don't know whether that's a new opinion of his
> --- perhaps his tongue is looser now that his exit is in sight --- or
> whether he's said that before, but sounds good to me!

Probably he wanted to do it before, but couldn't due to political
pressure. They can't sack him now...

The Space Shuttle has, at best, been outcompeted by the other
systems around. Perhaps private industry could improve it, but most
likely it would make a loss.

Instead, probably the deal will be that whoever buys it will get a
huge, guaranteed contract from the defense industry (i.e.
government) for a few years, and then that will dry up, and the
government will get out of having to close it down; the 'evil
private company' will do it for them.