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Antares Rocket Launch Scrubbed
An anonymous reader writes "This evening's planned launch of the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket had to be canceled just 12 minutes before liftoff, due to the unexpected separation of the booster's umbilical cable while the vehicle was on the launch pad. This is the first attempt to fly the Antares rocket, which is a commercial craft and direct competitor to the SpaceX Dragon 9. Beyond being the first flight of a brand new commercial rocket, this mission is also notable for carrying three of NASA's PhoneSats; small satellites powered by Android running on Nexus smartphones. With each PhoneSat costing just $3,500, they're designed to test the limits of extremely low cost spacecraft, similar to the European STRaND-1 mission. Since this is simply an orbital test, and the Antares will not be attempting to dock with the International Space Station, the launch window is highly flexible. It's anticipated Orbital Sciences will make another attempt at launching the Antares within 48 hours."
Wow! Antares is 470 light years away. Private space companies are advancing faster than I thought.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The last thing we need to do is antagonize the Antarans. We don't even have planetary missile bases yet.
TFS says that the three satellites are "...small satellites powered by Android running on Nexus smartphones." I didn't know that any smartphone put out that much power or that their batteries lasted that long. I think that whoever wrote that meant that they are controlled buy Nexus smartphones.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
The second stage umbilical cable was not the only thing to come off the rocket. Check out the pic of the American flag on the side. I guess the flag does not feel it belongs on a rocket being made of 95% foreign parts. An American rocket it is not.
http://spaceflightnow.com/antares/demo/prelaunch/06.jpg
>unexpected separation of the booster's umbilical cable
I hate it when that happens.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
The Kerbals would've launched anyway. It would've been *glorious*.
it was a spontaneous abortion - the umbilical came off
but I heard that if you go horseback riding...
SpaceX FALCON 9 rocket!!! The Dragon capsule is just what goes on top.
Celeste?
I used to be
"Causes of the failure
Investigation revealed that the Redstone's engine shutdown was caused by two of its electrical cables separating in the wrong order.[6] These cables were a control cable, which provided various control signals, and a power cable, which provided electrical power and grounding. Both cables were plugged into the rocket at the bottom edge of one of its tail fins and would separate at liftoff.[10] The control cable was supposed to separate first, followed by the power cable. However, for this launch, the control cable was longer than expected—it was one designed for the military Redstone missile rather than the shorter cable designed for Mercury-Redstone. This control cable had been clamped to compensate for its greater length, but when the vehicle lifted off, the clamping did not work as planned and the control cable separation was delayed, eventually occurring about 29 milliseconds after the power cable had separated.[4][11]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_1
Before it gets messy.
This is similar to IT - when a user finds a bug in testing, that's a GOOD thing: it means it's not going to production like that.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
In most cases this will hasten Kessler Syndrome.
Antares rocket, which is a commercial craft and direct competitor to the SpaceX Dragon
Orbital Sciences represents the epitome of American hustle, aiming to leapfrog the bottom feeding SpaceX.
I'm sorry but how do I opt out my tax money from these under-perform, over-budget LOSERS !!!
The Russians and Europe are kicking our ass.