Slashdot Mirror
Fatal Fire at Indian Space Center
JJP writes "The BBC reports that a fire has ripped through India's main space centre killing at least six people. Apparently an explosion triggered the fire at a solid propellant plant, where advanced rocket fuel is prepared. The fire at Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota is reported to be under control."
They said indians could replace our coders, and they did. But they will never replace our rocket scientists.
Indian rocket fuel!
Ba-dum-bum-cha!!
Let's see if half of the responses here are racists whining about Indians STEALING their jobs by merely doing them better.
Go back to slashdot.in! Oh, wait. There is no Indian slashdot!!! AHHHAHAHAHA!
It could have been worse. Whenever you work with highly flammable materials, this is the risk that you take. It can be mitigated by proper safety procedures, but never fully eliminated. These workers paid the ultimate price for a lapse somewhere in the chain of safety.
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
On the plate at Raja Rani:
The chicken tandoori has been replaced with chicken space-fuelie until further notice.
We had quite a lot of rather disastrous fires in our early rocket programs, too. Since many were military, I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't all revealed to the public as 'rocketry disasters' instead of being 'experimental failures' or 'military accidents'.
I believe I speak for all space enthusiasts (ok this is unrealistic) when I offer our condolences on the tragic loss of life in India. Progress has costs, and hopefully the cost of these lives will buy improvements in the knowledge about, and operational safety with, rocket technologies.
"We choose to go to the moon and do these other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard." John Kennedy knew that it's important to dedicate onself to a noble task and boldly pursue it. I hope India's space program advances on those noble goals we all set, the lifting of humanity from the face of this humble rock to the place where the real action is, Space.
-- Kevin J. Rice
Unitarian Church: Freethinkers Congregate!
Oh. yeah. it's not a curry joke, so of course it is off-topic.
I think this is actually their primary launch facility, not the main center of the program. Presumably that's why it's on an island. Tragic, at any rate.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Lucky for them they didn't have a large store of ammonium perchlorate go up. Remember this explosion in NV in '88
This lobster was alive when it hit the frothy, boiling water.
#1 - we don't like anyone else going/trying to go to space
#2 - we don't like arabs/niggers/gooks (other than japs)
#3 - we don't like indians because they take jobs from USA workers
FUCK EM
When the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up, seven astronauts were killed. Brave people who knew the risks they were taking and had at least considered that they might not make it back alive.
Six people died in this fire. We treated Columbia as a national tragedy, yet when six unknown Indians die, most people won't even notice. These were people who didn't expect to die, who hadn't told their loved ones those "Just in case I don't make it back..." last messages and prepared for the worst.
My heart goes out to their families. Please try to have some respect for the dead. They were just as much a part of the space program as the Columbia astronauts were.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Indian rocket scientists are baffled as to where they will be able to find 6 engineers to replace the deceased workers in a country like India with such severe labor shortages...
Firstly, my condolences to all involved. As everyone else has already said, but I'll repeat, this is a tragic event.
However, this hopefully won't be the end of the Indian space efforts. When the SS Columbia was lost it brought NASA's manned space travel to almost a standstill, let's hope the Indians can work out what went wrong, ensure it won't happen again and carry on doing great work. If it all stops, their lives will have been for nothing.
Not only does India need this to bring itself into a greater position in the internation scientific community, but the rest of the world needs it to encourage them to try as well.
May they RIP.
So, how about it ? :)
And since I haven't said it yet, condolences to the bereaved families.. I hope the Indian Space Program gets beyond these obstacles.. seeing as I am Indian myself, I'm sure as well, this country is one with a lot of vision, just not enough funds for everything ... yet ...
Well yes apparently I was mistaken in that an Indian astronaut was aboard and therefore India's degree of separation from the Colombia accident was not as far as I thought. My humble apologies to those who are offended, I just tried to come up with a theory without any basis of India's involvement in the Space Shuttle Colombia without researching India's involvement in the Shuttle crash and deserve to be rightfully flamed as a result.
However at the same time, this does little to disprove my theory about degrees of separation and mourning. Pick another country that didn't have any astronauts aboard, how much do you think they mourned? Go further down to a tiny village in that country, the news of the Space Shuttle Colombia breaking up may not have even reached them yet! Just food for thought.
...in bed
is here.
Science as a way of life.
If India and Indians have the courage to move on, to come back after a tradegy tomorrow to clean up the pads, bury the remains, and work overtime to make the next launch date, then India will surpass the United States in space.
We should face the unfortunate truth; the United States space program has no courage and no honor. When the Challenger failed, the program stopped for over a year. When the Columbia failed, the program stopped again. People play the blame game, make excuses, the President of the United States makes a speech about a mission to Mars to abandon the ISS and the Hubble Telescope.
The American space program, and to some extent the American people, are cowards.
So, indians, no matter what you hear about it: keep working on it.
There was a recent similar accident in 3rd world, also covered by slashdot
Why the heck is this article even getting any eyeballs? It seems like an excuse for slashdot to get non-Indians to flame India/Indians one more time, ....
(i.e. if they can't handle their space program, should we be letting write our code, and other hair-brained comments...
Good, know we need this to happen at some of the call centers in India
By adjusted figures:
6 Indians = 1 White Man
Of cause you have a lot to worry about