Interesting figure for commercial manned space advocates

http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?as_umsgid=1111679203.041750.204850@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com

lists the planned launches until the start of June; vehicle, mass, launch site, orbit.

These include the launch of the heaviest commercial satellite ever, Spaceway 1 at 6.0 tonnes.

Also, a Russian microgravity experiment at 6.4 tonnes; a 7.3-tonne manned Soyuz to the ISS, a 14.5-tonne satellite of unspecified type to be launched into an unspecified orbit for the NRO, and the Shuttle.

Which is 130 tonnes by itself. Ariane 5 ECA launches 10 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer, I'm not sure how much it could send to the ISS's orbit, but doubt it would be as much as 20 tonnes.

I hadn't realised the disparity between the sizes of things launched because they'll return a profit (and Spaceway 1 is somewhat speculative as these things go; it's got an impressive phased-array transmitter for Broadband Internet Anywhere), things launched containing people, and the Shuttle.

The cost of Eastercon is INFINITE BOOKSHELVES

Typing the titles of newly-purchased books into a spreadsheet with auto-complete gives some amusing results: Geoff Ryman's "Was" is not Eric Frank Russell's Wasp, nor have Venus in Copper and Venus Equilateral many similarities.

It is however a little annoying to be reminded you've bought two books you already own before you've reached the middle of the second word of the title.

My haul: The Adolescence of P-1, Protector, Was, The Pirates of Rosinante (duplicate), Venus Equilateral, Roadside Picnic, The Nitrogen Fix, The Persistence of Vision, Wizard, Mirkheim, In Conquest Born, Woken Furies, The Hercules Text (duplicate), Stamping Butterflies, Market Forces, a Cherryh compilation with Brothers of Earth and Hunter of Worlds, The Wooden Sea, The Year of our War and Joris of the Rock.

Are there any of these that I should prioritise, or (more importantly) that I should discard at once before the rot spreads to other books?

My catalogue now has 583 books in it, 111 unread, including seven bought at Eastercon 2003. Anyone want the Rosinante or the Hercules Text?