Slashdot Mirror
Amateur Rocket Launch a Failure; NASA Debuts Shuttle-cam
Anonymous Coward writes "CNN has posted the story of the failure of the amateur rocket launch that was reported in a previous Slashdot story. 'The launch was spectacular and the rocket was performing as planned. However, the rocket experienced motor failure during the flight and the flight was terminated," said Eric Knight, co-leader of the CSXT mission.' NASA is planning to mount a camera on the external fuel tank and broadcast an October 2nd shuttle launch.
Neat trick, considering he died in 1963.
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They havnt made it to space yet, but at least their rockets dont explode. Check out this amatuer rocket effort. They have some great videos from outside of their LV1 rocket. PSAS
Quitters never win, Winners never quit, But those who never win and never quit are idiots.
Still, a remarkably good safety record.
I helped out at this launch attempt as part of the recovery team and I can tell you the following:
Amateur rocketry, like all rocketry, is used to failure
If you've met or heard of Ky, you'd realize that he has had plenty of successes and failures to deal with. And Ky is just the CEO of sorts to what amounts to a massively talented technical team. Having gotten the rocket off the ground was an accomplishment itself; the FAA puts enormous safety restrictions on the launch, of which very few are satisfied at any given moment.
The failure itself wasn't that dangerous either. The rocket did not explode like a fireball. It just made a sort of "pop" sound and broke into pieces. The selection of the launch site has a lot to do with ensuring that such pieces don't come down and harm anyone.
If you want to see some other videos taken by this camera, visit our RocketCam Gallery. They're not of the shuttle, but they're pretty inspiring nonetheless.
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.