ASTRA 1K De-orbited
dda writes "Following the story about ASTRA 1K launch failure: Early this morning, it has been de-orbited over the pacific ocean, due to the rapid degradation of the satellite, coupled to the technical difficulties and risks associated with such a mission, according to the SES-ASTRA operator."
geez now we use politcally correct terms for satellites getting cratered.
BC
... Tacos? Or did it miss New Zealand?
...they fsck up sat launches!
It was probably just a shipping container filled with
old pinball machine parts. They collect on the
insurance and reuse the original components in
another bird. It's a tough world, you gotta make
money any way you can.
Isn't there any safe method to get those birds up in the sky? Where is Kim Stanley Robinson's Space Elevator when you need it...
Scenario: I'm out boating. I decide to take a few tons of heavy metals, computer components, batteries, and corrosion resistant materials and just toss the fucking loot into the ocean.
Before doing this, I make a press release entitled:
LISTEN HERE HIZZOS! I AM DUMPING ILLEGAL SHIT INTO THE OCEAN!
Why don't space companies have to clean up after their fucking messes? I want to throw shit into the ocean too! Look at the trouble that Carnival got into about dumping trash. This isn't trash too? Granted, it's not diseases feces and medical waste along with food, but I cannot imagine the ocean really needs more garbage tossed into it.
Actually it wasn't KSR who introduced the space elevator. Arthur C. Clarke had popularized it before in his novel Fountains of Paradise. In his foreword he credits Yuri Artsutanov who wrote about Space Elevators in Pravda in the 1960s.
Full Time Idiot and Miserable Sod
Nothing is real but the pain