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The United Nations Will Launch Its First Space Mission In 2021 (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the space-odyssey dept.

The United Nations will send its first ever mission to space in 2021. It said it intends to send Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft into a two-week, low-Earth orbit flight in 2021. Sierra Nevada had signed the UN as a partner in June. Motherboard adds:As detailed for a small crowd at the International Astronautical Congress yesterday, the goal of the 2021 UN mission is to make space accessible to developing member states that lack the resources to develop a standalone, national space program. "One of UNOOSA's core responsibilities is to promote cooperation and the peaceful uses of outer space, but our work is about more than that," said Simonetta Di Pippo, the director of UNOOSA. "We have the vision of bringing the benefits of space to humankind, and that means helping developing countries access space technologies and their benefits."

29 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. U.N. Spacy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What year did Macross and Robotech start up in?

  2. Call it the United Federation of Planets by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Put the HQ in San Fransisco. Get it started right.

    1. Re:Call it the United Federation of Planets by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Been their, done that:

      The UN was founded following the Second World War, in 1945 when the Charter of the United Nations was drafted at the UN Conference on International Organisation in San Francisco, California.

      http://www.unaa.org.au/learn/about-the-un/history-of-the-un/

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    2. Re:Call it the United Federation of Planets by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      But this is where no man has gone before...

  3. All I could think of was Macross/Robotech by Necron69 · · Score: 1

    U.N. Spacy SDF 0.1

  4. Sierra Nevada by The-Ixian · · Score: 2

    Good to know that brewery has diversified into space craft.

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    1. Re:Sierra Nevada by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      Well, sure. Modern breweries are amazing. Why, if someone were to blindfold you and take you into one, when the blindfold was removed you might think that you are in a starship.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  5. Now this, by flex941 · · Score: 1

    and Chrisjen Avasarala will be the Secretary of UN some time in future.

    1. Re:Now this, by swb · · Score: 1

      NOW is the time to start planning for how to deal with the protomolecule.

      I sometimes wonder if The Expanse series will end with a Terminator-style time travel conclusion where they end up going back in time to vaporize the protomolecule on whatever moon or asteroid it was found on before it can be discovered and set loose.

  6. LEO in 2021 by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    The UN says they will launch a spacecraft in LEO in 2021. Musk says he will be launching 1,000 spacecrafts to Mars to colonize the planet. Total fucking lunacy. Is everyone disconnected from reality here?

    1. Re:LEO in 2021 by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      The UN says they will launch a spacecraft in LEO in 2021. Musk says he will be launching 1,000 spacecrafts to Mars to colonize the planet. Total fucking lunacy. Is everyone disconnected from reality here?

      This election has everyone nervous.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:LEO in 2021 by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      The UN says they will launch a spacecraft in LEO in 2021. Musk says he will be launching 1,000 spacecrafts to Mars to colonize the planet. Total fucking lunacy. Is everyone disconnected from reality here?

      This election has everyone nervous.

      And willing to leave the planet.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  7. Just a small correction by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Sierra Nevada Corporation Will Launch Its First Space Mission In 2021. UN Will Bicker About it and Do Nothing."

    FTFY

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  8. bringing the benefits of space to humankind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yes, often while walking in a t-shirt breathing air, I wish for the benefit of a hard vacuum, direct solar radiation, and bone demineralisation. For all mankind.

    What is it with these empty slogans and meaningless hype about "space benefits" with you geeks? Is it a religion?

    1. Re: bringing the benefits of space to humankind by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      "The meek shall inherit the Earth. The rest of us will go to the stars."

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  9. Trumpillary 2016! by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Have you taken a look at reality lately?
    Much healthier to be delusional at this point.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:Trumpillary 2016! by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      Reality is seeming more and more like a hilarious dream, or a badly written "reality" tv show at this point.

  10. Is this for real? by Spy+Handler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    UN has its own space program?

    *mind blown*

    Whatever problem NASA has with bureaucracy and money-wasting, compared to the UN they are like Henry Ford and Jeff Bezos combined.

    1. Re:Is this for real? by Princeofcups · · Score: 1

      UN has its own space program?

      *mind blown*

      Whatever problem NASA has with bureaucracy and money-wasting, compared to the UN they are like Henry Ford and Jeff Bezos combined.

      Yeah better to let the US run things than to actually let other people in the world have a say in anything.

      --
      The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
    2. Re:Is this for real? by fche · · Score: 1

      If that "say" consists of "you pay for my vanity project", people should let them have that say, then laugh at them. A lot.

    3. Re:Is this for real? by khallow · · Score: 1

      Whatever problem NASA has with bureaucracy and money-wasting, compared to the UN they are like Henry Ford and Jeff Bezos combined.

      Yeah better to let the US run things than to actually let other people in the world have a say in anything.

      So the people of the world have spoken, and they want bureaucracy and money-wasting? Interesting.

    4. Re:Is this for real? by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 1

      Given that the US pays more money to the UN than 185 other countries combined, I say "Screw the UN and give the money to NASA or private space companies."
      Giving the bulk of the money to the UN for this and letting the rest of the world have an equal say is like hosting a kegger and letting the people who didn't buy the keg decide how much beer everyone gets and what kind of music can be played. Oh, and they would also get to decide who does and doesn't get laid that night.

  11. Spiffy by A10Mechanic · · Score: 1

    Well, Mission Control will look very spiffy and smart in their blue berets. No more silly vests! It's time to move forward!

  12. Who will pay for it? by srichard25 · · Score: 1

    From TFA: "The total cost of the Dream Chaser mission has yet to be determined and will depend on the nature of the payloads being sent to orbit. UNOOSA is hoping that companies, organizations and established spacefaring nation states will be interested in helping sponsor the cost of deploying these payloads."

    Awesome. So we will be paying for the UN and 3rd world countries to have a space program. Never mind that our own space program is underfunded and that our debt continues to climb. Sure, let's go pay for someone else's space program too.

  13. It must be painted bright sky blue by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

    It's the UN law!

  14. Textbook mission creep by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 1

    Remember back when the UN was supposed to be a forum for (civilized) states to settle disputes and communicate in a multilateral and open manner? Well, that's boring, and we're not that good at it, so let's distract away from our structural ineptitude by wasting our member states' taxpayers' money on rockets!

    1. Re: Textbook mission creep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      UNESCO was formed in 1946, to coordinate, among other things, scientfic research. They also have agencies for weather, aviation, and telecommunications.

      If you don't know how space programs are involved with this sort of thing, please call Neil Patrick Harris and ask him for help. You need it. Or call Doctor Sheldon Cooper. Or Ensign Wesley Crusher.

    2. Re: Textbook mission creep by RightwingNutjob · · Score: 1

      And all of those agencies are (nominally) structured as mechanisms by which national weather, aviation, and telecom agencies communicate and agree on policies and programs that they individually run. Surely you understand the difference between having an ICAO and having an ICAO that runs its own control tower and air traffic radars instead of the FAA?

  15. Re:synergy by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    Well, a rocket is just a controlled explosion.

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u