A GUIDE TO THE MANNED SPACE CONTROVERSY: Rand Simberg explains the manned space program(s), relatively successfully. It’s a good exposition, and I disagree on only two relatively minor points.

One, the Vision for Space Exploration, announced in 2004, may have been a sea-change policy, but it was never sold to the public as anything beyond Constellation. This was a serious error.

And two, whether NASA “got the details wrong” in developing Constellation in lieu of immediately commercializing manned launch services, there is still a need for Ares until “Pan American World Spaceways” can become viable.

Previous posts here and here.