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Launch of Elon Musk's Private Rocket Fails; Three Satellites Were Onboard
- jedc 18y agoThat's too bad. I really want to see them succeed, but it's a whole series of difficult engineering problems. I'm glad to hear they've got cash to keep them going for a while, but they need to start racking up successes soon.
- pmorici 18y agoSo, do the customers get their money back? Why would any company rely on a yet to be successful rocket to launch them into space? Don't get me wrong it's a cool idea but wouldn't you want some reasonable assurance of success ie: past success before you forked over your cash?
- icky 18y agoIrate Customer: "Come on, people. This experimental rocketry stuff isn't rocket science!"
- noonespecial 18y agoThere's no such thing as rocket science. Rocket science is a dozen or more sciences all jumbled up together, each of which has to be executed perfectly just to get into orbit. Then the hard part begins. Much respect to NASA and the mars lander programs.
- tlrobinson 18y agoSeriously, now there's 208 people's ashes scattered somewhere over the Pacific instead of space.. "The rocket was also carrying the ashes of 208 people who had paid to have their remains shot into space,"
- bprater 18y agoI'm sure they are covered by insurance and I'm confident Musk clearly clued them in to their current success rate. And I'm guessing the rates were heavily discounted.
- ashwinl 18y ago"Why would any company rely on a yet to be successful rocket to launch them into space?" 2 of the 3 payloads, PreSat and NanoSail-D, were paid for by NASA. With NASA retiring the shuttle in a 2010, the Falcon rockets are looked upon as the next generation of rockets before NASA's Constellation program begins in 2014. Bottom line: NASA is re-positioning itself to help private industry succeed even if the risks are high.
- ashwinl 18y agoPreSat - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/PRESat.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/PRESat.html NanoSail-D - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/nanosaild.html http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/nanosaild.html
- tlrobinson 18y agoIt's amusing how many tech entrepreneurs use their fortunes for space exploration. Paul Allen invested in SpaceShipOne. Charles Simonyi paid millions to go to space. Sergey Brin invested in a space tourism company. Larry Page is on the board of trustees for X PRIZE. John Carmack has a aerospace/space tourism startup. And of course Elon Musk. Am I forgetting anyone?
- quickpost 18y agoJeff Bezos, Blue Origin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin
- jsmcgd 18y agoMark Shuttleworth, second space tourist.
- Hexstream 18y agoThe message they send is clear: Not even the sky is a limit!
- ashwinl 18y agoAnousheh Ansari, first female private space participant, founded and sold Telecom Technologies, inc.
- bprater 18y agoAnd it took the Wright Brothers how long to pitch that bucket of sticks and cloth into the sky? I'm confident the crew will work the kinks out and we'll look back at this phase as "humbled beginnings".