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Antares Rocket Launch Scrubbed

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-this-time dept.

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."

6 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. They were right to scrub. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Funny

    This evening's planned launch of the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket had to becanceled just 12 minutes before liftoff

    Wow! Antares is 470 light years away. Private space companies are advancing faster than I thought.

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    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  2. Excellent. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The last thing we need to do is antagonize the Antarans. We don't even have planetary missile bases yet.

    1. Re:Excellent. by sanman2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      someone set us up the bomb

  3. Re:Powered by? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Of course, the phones won’t exactly resemble their Earth-bound brethren while in space. To save weight, the screens and cases will be removed from the phones, and their batteries will be replaced with more appropriate power systems."

    http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/08/can-android-revolutionize-spacecraft-design/

  4. Editors, do they exist? by robot256 · · Score: 4, Informative

    SpaceX FALCON 9 rocket!!! The Dragon capsule is just what goes on top.

  5. Excellent time to scrub the launch by Kittenman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    "The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill