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Glory Satellite Lost To Taurus XL Failure
FullBandwidth writes "The protective nose cone of an Orbital Sciences Corporation Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory environmental research satellite apparently failed to separate after launch Friday, preventing the spacecraft from achieving orbit in a $424 million failure. It was the second nose cone failure in a row for a Taurus XL rocket following the 2009 loss of another environmental satellite."
I bet Big Oil is behind this.
Nope.
Don't get me wrong, I would love easy access to space, but there are enormous up-front costs to constructing a mega launch service, like a launch loop or an elevator, not to mention significant technical risks, very few of which are in the process of being retired.
Rockets are a tried, tested, and true method of getting to space. They have put up many times the value of spacecraft as they have lost, not to mention a growing number of human payloads. They are also getting cheaper, with public ventures like SpaceX. I think it's going to be a good long while before you see someone investing heavily in alternative launch methods.
Aikon-
IANARS
Just make the fairing lighter and stick a bit more fuel in the rocket, problem getting to orbit solved! As for getting the satellite out, perhaps they could stick a baby chick in who can peck their way through the shell?
(Absolutely no idea why NASA didn't hire me, what with all my lack of qualifications and everything. I have loads of useful ideas ;)
I think we're a long way from any 2000km-long megastructure being a viable solution to the problem. There's a lot of good ground between rockets and sci-fi megatech that should be explored first.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
you think the launch loop is a good idea because you have no idea just how chaotic a system a cable, being accelerated through a curve at some very high mach number, is. and the most minor of wobbles is enough to crash it into the sheathing and kaboom. not to mention sending something along it, that is magnetically suspended close to it. and the wear from flexing at those speeds, and the heating, and having a flexible tube in which it can be magnetically suspended in as it passes through it. a tube that must also maintain a vacuum. and a myriad of other near impossible obstacles.
I don't know, Orbital's board of directors looks like a who's who of republican lobbyists and military contractor sweethearts.
A few lunch checks get picked up, a few golfing trips to Manele Bay and everybody's good. Oh, there will still be layoffs, but as Speaker John Boehner put it, "So be it."
You are welcome on my lawn.
Very close? The longest carbon nanotube ever observed was only 18.5 cm long. I think LEO is a bit higher than that.
You mean the same 1% of media elites and politicians that demand the rest of us do with less while at the same time living their hypocritical lifestyle? I agree.
Life is not for the lazy.
I prefer the bottom 99% show up at the 1%'s homes with torches and pichforks and solve the whole problem in a night.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I've got a better idea. Let's ask the top 1% not to open the second bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild at dinner for a week and pay for the space program for a year.
How about you put your money where your mouth rather than Other Peoples' Money? If you aren't willing to kick in, then I can't be bothered to get the 1% to kick in either.
Actually, Mercycorps (http://www.mercycorps.org/gifts) provides affordable "kits" that allow you to do just that. You can do anything from buying a chicken for an impoverished family for $35 up to digging a well for a drought struck village for $3000. My favorite kit is the goat. For $70 a family gets a goat they can turn out on the scrub around their house and get valuable wool, milk and eventually meat from.
These kits make great gifts for that person who "has everything". Well, does he have a rural third world classroom built in his honor ($125)? Maybe instead of that iPad for that special someone, you could pay for the education of five girls at $100 apiece; provide a dozen vaccinations to children at $45; or teach ten women to read at $50 apiece. You can reintegrate eight child soldiers to their community through education and apprenticeship programs for only $58 each.
I was excited about that website until I read the fine print:
Meh. It's general-purpose charity with a fashionable front-end.
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
The middle class pays more by percentage of their income than the upper class (even if it's not more total). The middle class also lives much closer to the line of having to cut out various expenses if income changes, as compared to the rich. We already are putting our money where our mouths are.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Also lost in this launch were three Amateur Radio Satellites.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Sure they do. They use the courts more, they use infrastructure more, they benefit from increased access. They get more benefit from the Dept of Education because they hire people who have learned to read and write. They benefit from the Dept of Agriculture because thanks to the food stamp program there are not starving people overrunning their property and killing and eating their thoroughbred horses.
Remember, there isn't anyone in the United States who has gained wealth on the basis of their hard work and ingenuity alone. Not one. Their use of "the commons" and their benefit from "the commons" goes up along with their wealth.
You are welcome on my lawn.