SpaceX is on track to be the first commercial launch provider to dock with the International Space Station. Saturday morning, bathed in the light of the high power spot lights at LC40, the Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon capsule loaded with supplies for the ISS had a malfunction and aborted the launch at T-00:00:00.5. Apparently, a pressure sensor on one of the engines indicated a chamber pressure outside allowable limits and the rocket automatically shut down.
That’s good news! If you missed the launch window on Saturday, you’re in luck! SpaceX and NASA have set the next window for tomorrow morning (May 22, 2012) at 3:44AM EDT. So set your alarms and tune your TV to NASA TV or watch online at either NASA TV or Spaceflight Now. It could be your chance to witness history.
[Image Credit: NASA]
So that's why I did not hear much about this over the weekend.
I figured it had been eclipsed by other news…
I am not going to lie, while I am sad about NASA seemingly moving out of the space game, I am intrigued by the possibilities of a business market for space flight, a real booming industry. Hopefully this launch goes well, I find the engineering required to design a rocket that can self-diagnose and shut down after ignition so it doesn't blow itself up pretty danged impressive. Maybe not as impressive as a successful launch, so get on it SpaceX!
I'm actually excited about commercial companies taking over LEO missions. Those missions tied up tons of NASA budget and they couldn't afford major missions beyond LEO. Now, they hopefully can get the Constellation and SLS systems back on track. That requires the White House and Congress to think beyond the next election.
I'm hoping that the bunch of rich guys talking about asteroid mining isn't just a bunch of hot air, it would be wonderful to see. I'd like to see them send out a couple of probes to the leading and trailing Trojans to see if there is anything there worth mining. It'd be a great way to do proof of concept testing, and would be a lot easier than chasing a NEO.
Why bother with that? Why not go straight to the Belt? More rocks, more choices…
Lots of reasons. The asteroid belt is one
helluvafuckuva a lot further away than the Trojans, with all that entails: fuel load/returned payload issues, travel time, communications delay time, etc., and that's just with an unmanned vehicle. If you add people into the equation it really gets nuts.If you want it in one word: money.
Look Doc, if you keep putting this off, it's just gonna be harder later on.
It's time to go, NOW.
Put the ship back together-you know it is your destiny to rule the world's
precious metals market! One run; one run is all we need, and we can be
sitting on more gold than has ever been dug up in the history of Man!
Yippie! Congrats to the Space-X folks, that was excellent!