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Mid-Atlantic Commercial Spaceport Makes First Launch
PeeAitchPee writes "East Coast residents of the US were treated to the first launch from the mid-Atlantic region's commercial spaceport. The 69-foot Minotaur I rocket soared from the launch pad at 7 a.m. ET, after teams spent the week resolving a glitch in software for one of the satellites that had scrubbed a liftoff on Monday. I witnessed the launch while driving to BWI airport this morning and it was beautiful! It left a zig-zag contrail in the southern sky and the separation / ignition of one of the upper stages was clearly visible." The spaceport, a commercial collaboration of Virginia and Maryland, is on the Delmarva peninsula south of the Maryland line, just west of Chincoteague Island.
At this early juncture in commercial space travel, let's all pray that TSA doesn't get their paws on spaceport security.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
One of the neighbor kids asked what was in the sky this morning, and I told him it was the government testing something they might need if Santa flies in too close to the DC-area controlled airspace. It's great to see those little minds so caught up in the emotion of learning something new.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Something's got be funny about someone who names a 69 ft phallic object after the fruit of the most celebrated instance of bestiality in antiquity...
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
And how many Frequent Flier miles will I need for my first sub orbital trip? Man, these are exciting times.
I had pictured this as being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Maryland and Virginia cooperating on something! What's that squealing noise going past my 5th-story window?
one hundred twenty
is just enough characters
to write a haiku
Well, does anyone? Their site is down for the count . . .
With so many spaceports popping up everywhere I kinda wonder how the industry will be commoditized.
--- This space reserved for the day when I have something witty to say.
I asked the designers of the Da Vinci Project in Canada when they'd start making launches into space, and the last I heard of the Project was months ago, after a gathering in the south western US for a competition. I guess I'll have to see when they are going to get a launch date in place for the pad that was prepared at Kindersley, SK Canada a couple years ago.
It would be nice to have a "northerly" launch point, even though it's more common to have pads closer to the equator.
Oh You POS
The article states that the rocket used was cobbled together from unused military rockets. It also mentions that the area is depressed and is looking to bootstrap itself into economic health through this venture.
I see a fleecing of the taxpayer going on here, as the rocket used came from the military (all ready paid for by the taxpayer -- though its refurbishment for use with a satellite might not have been. I see the land being acquired at taxpayer expense and I see the first launch being paid for by the military who could have saved the taxpayer money by launching from their own spaceport or NASA's.
I do appreciate attempts to improve an area by building an industrial zone or a commercial zone to attract jobs and employ underemployed people in a particular locality but I don't see too many rocket scientists applying for unemployment compensation these days, and that is the kind of person a spaceport hires. Oh, yes, they'll need security personnel, ground maintenance personnel and construction workers to build the facility, but that's not the major thrust of a spaceport, and I'll just bet a military use for a spaceport would preclude the presence of a lot of civilians without security clearance..
No, this looks like a fiscal boondoggle to me. And with the recent change in the membership of the US House of Repesentatives and Senate, one wonders whether or not anything else will ever launch from there. A "commercial" site that is wholly dependant on the military is not viable on its own
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
I made an early morning trip to a local laudromat in Bowie, Maryland. I normally get there a little before 7:00 A.M. EST. Sunrise happens now around 7:10 A.M. It's a pleasure to see the sky and clouds change color and appearance as sunrise nears.
As I watched today, I said, "What's that?". To the east a thin bright white contrail grew longer and longer. What's that? I had no idea. Something "shiny" was drawing a line on the sky. The contrail quickly went from a line to jaggy. My guess - Something must be traveling vertical, going through different wind layers.
Acceleration was easily visible - not at all like a cruising plane. It changed course from what may have been nearly vertical to something much closer to horizontal. At times, a long "wake" was visible - a bright line vee from the base of the "shiny thing".
I had no idea what I was looking at. Now I do.
Shiny? The rocket exhaust flame? The distance from Bowie to Wallops is on the order of 100 miles, I can't have been seeing the rocket itself.
It might be decade or so since that last time I've seen a "not looking for it" launch display from the Wallops area.
It left a zig-zag contrail in the southern sky and the separation / ignition of one of the upper stages was clearly visible.
Because going straight up is just too easy.
Also aboard the rocket is NASA's GeneSat-1 satellite, which carries a harmless strain of E. coli bacteria as part of an experiment to study the long-term effects of space on living organisms.
Until they get hit from all the radiation from the sun spots this week. Let me be the first to welcome our new E. coli overlords.
The delay added "a couple hundred thousand dollars" to the $60 million price of the mission, Air Force Col. Scott McCraw, the mission director, said Friday. Included in the total is the cost of the rocket and the two satellites and $621,000 the Air Force will pay the spaceport.
Anyone know how that compares to Ariane or what the Russians can boost them for? Two birds for 60 mil seems pretty reasonable.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Although, they should be a better than the group they just pushed out...the scare and spend conservatives.
Blar.
Can be found at: http://www.wff.nasa.gov/tacsat2/
The minotaur IIRC, is basically a repurposed minuteman III.
The nice thing about solid fuel rockets (as opposed to liquid-fuel), is that they leave a nice, visible trail as they ascend, which often persists for 30 minutes or more. Here on the W/C, we get to see minuteman missile tests out of Vandenberg 2-3 times a year. (mostly in the middle of the night, though).
When you see something like an Atlas or Delta go up, there isn't much of a trail at all, so if you aren't watching closely, you can miss it.
Of course, there are some bad things about solid-fuel rockets; the exhaust is often pretty nasty stuff, corrosive, and toxic. Plus, you can't throttle them back or shut them off if something goes wrong. On the other hand, they're so simple, mechanically, you're not likely to need to throttle them back.
But the best thing about solids, is that they usually supplement the larger Atlas and Delta vehicles, and you get to hear rocket scientists talk about "strap-ons".
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Haha. You totally pwned that kid. That'll teach him to trust you when he wants to learn something. </sarcasm>
I'm sorry, but I've never understood the joy some people find in deceiving children who come to them with honest questions. Those kids want to learn the truth and you tell them a lie for your own amusement while pretending to help them.
It's just like religion.
Ye gads, that is so far from the mid-Atlantic, it isn't even funny.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
I just happened to be outside and looking east and saw it launch... And I was about 300 miles away in Irwin, PA./ detail.html
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/10552546
Mid-(Atlantic Coast)
NOT (Mid-Atlantic) Coast, as there isn't any coast in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sorry, but I read the article carefully and also searched in my browser and failed to find the word "coast" in it. Perhaps there is a convention to call a certain part of the US coast the "Mid-Atlantic", but that's certainly not well known in the rest of the world.
For anyone who isn't a "Merkin" and is interested in space exploration, the expression "Mid-Atlantic Commercial Spaceport Makes First Launch", which is the title of this Slashdot story, will evoke a mental image of a spaceport located in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, somewhat like the one that exists right now in the middle of the Pacific ocean
At 30 million per satellite, it's still in the province of governments. The fact that it's owned by a commercial business doesn't really make much of a difference.
My new company is selling round trips from New York --> London --> New York for $10. We've figured out a way to bypass the London leg while still getting you from New York to New York, and back again, with a minimum of fuss and muss. And we do it in record time! PM me for details.
3000+ comments meta-modded. 0 mod points awarded.
Lesson for other meta-suckers: Don't believe the hype!
having lived on Merritt Island for 30+ years (and having worked at KSC), I find some of your comments amusing.
Some thought....you should check into the shuttle's solid-rocket booster and see if they do a "throttle-up".
And personally, I've always seen the Deltas and Atlas VERY clearly when they went up.
(of course, it's MUCH easier to see them when they blow up, but hey!)
"Mid-Atlantic Commercial Spaceport...you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."
Libertas in infinitum