Jeffrey F. Bell

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Jeffrey F. Bell is a former NASA engineer and space scientist and critic of many of NASA's spaceflight programs. He writes frequently for Space Daily and other spaceflight magazines and websites, primarily regarding the human spaceflight programme of the US government. His articles are written in a very colorful, lively and sarcastic style. However they are technically sound and explore in depth various aspects of past, present and proposed space flights programs.

The US manned space program is highly publicised one, both by the concerned government agencies, as well as by various interest groups. Bell seems to be paying very close attention to all officially released technical information. His essays usually begin by pointing out a few serious technical problems of a specific space system, typically ones that are currently under development. He then investigates relevant public press releases of the appropriate US government agencies. The discrepancy between the publicly released propaganda and the technical analysis is pointed out. His pieces conclude with lengthy speculations on the ulterior motives for publicising technically deficient or outright unworkable concepts.

Bell also presents historical analysis of current and past manned space programs, examining in detail the practical reasons which led their inception. These are usually found to be in stark contrast to the publicly stated reasons, at the time these programs were sold to the public.

He writes about the Blackstar and the future of Manned Spaceflight. His latest criticism is the spiraling cost of the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle which uses a single shuttle solid rocket booster, instead of a liquid rocket that has already been developed. Bell and many others see the single stick SRB as pork barrel politics to keep employees at ATK in Utah in business.