Slashdot Mirror
SpaceX's Friday Launch Scrubbed
Reuters reports that a SpaceX launch planned for Friday from Cape Canaveral has been scrubbed, though it may be rescheduled for as early as Saturday evening. The Falcon 9 will be lifting six communications satellites for Orbcomm intended to facilitate machine-to-machine communications. According to another report, It was not immediately clear if the problem was with equipment on the rocket or with ground systems connected to the rocket at Launch Complex 40. The mission was delayed from May by a helium leak on the rocket, but it was not known if the same issue was a factor Friday. Launch managers pushed the targeted liftoff from the window's opening at 6:08 p.m. to its end at 7:01 p.m., but ran out of time to resolve the problem. The countdown was halted with under eight minutes to go.
WTH? You don't post anything on Slashdot in YEARS and you do it to post this kind of baseless drivel? And you gotta pull out your +1 Karma bonus to boot? Crawl back under your rock you Troll!
Brought to you by Frobozz Magic Penguin Fodder.
Well... that might be what YOU call it but the rest of us call it FREE SPEECH. Get a dictionary. Troll.
Brought to you by Frobozz Magic Penguin Fodder.
Look... I'm sorry. I had a really bad day and it looks like I'm taking it out on you. I really am sorry. Didn't mean to get into anyone's face when I woke up this morning.
Brought to you by Frobozz Magic Penguin Fodder.
Hmm, Satellites assisting in machine to machine communications, could this be the start of Skynet?
Research is what I doing when I don't know what I am doing - Werner von Braun
Er, Wallops is a launch site, like Canaveral. Pretty much anyone can launch from there - the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is located there. If you're referring to OSC, who are the major non-government users of Wallops, you're being needlessly confusing.
Also, OSC is good at cobbling together pieces. The Minotaurs are recycled ICBMs, either Peacekeepers or Minuteman missiles. The Antares uses Russian engines, a Ukrainian-designed first stage, then an off-the-shelf solid-fuel second stage. They do remarkably good work considering their limitations, but much of the work of "getting to space" was already done for them, they just had to make it work with their payloads and launch facilities.
SpaceX is doing everything from scratch - much more expensive, but it has the advantage of not making them reliant on anyone else. OSC is already in trouble because Russia is cutting off their supply of engines for Antares. They'll also be in trouble if the US military ever cuts off their supply of old missiles, either because they need them as missiles again, or because they've simply run out. OSC does good work, but they seem to be a dead-end in the long term.
So where are these "real space corporations"?
Faith in humanity restored.