Posted on 11/26/2005 12:48:50 PM PST by KevinDavis
Countdown at 2 hrs and 20 mins...
Space has been open the whole time to entrepreneurs. Nobody wants to fund their own research, however. Instead, they leave it to NASA. Then, after NASA does all the R&D, private industry is free to snag it and run with it. Always has been.
That said, Administrator Griffin does appear to agree with your core sentiment and is actively encouraging private handling of LEO flight and things like ISS so NASA can do the heavy lifting in returning to Luna and moving on to Mars.
Private industry will be going to the stars before NASA figures out how to keep the foam from coming off the shuttle fuel tank.
Thanks!
Which NASA should have done in the first place..
The launch window has been lengthened an additional two hours -- to 10 p.m. EST (0300 GMT). A spokesman for SpaceX says it still looks good that launch will happen today.
FYI prisoner6
It did. Remember that systems and subsystems throughout NASA's history were farmed out to private contractors. It's just that no businesses wanted to assume the economic or legal liability of actually doing the heavy lifting. NASA didn't stop anybody from enterting space. Everyone else was restricted by their own self-imposed limitations.
That's a beautiful story. It needs beautiful music.
Private industry won't invest the money to do the job. They sure as hell didn't bother going to the moon when NASA stopped doing it, now did they?
from EmB's link --
Launch Window Extended for Falcon 1 Rocket's First Flight
For 7:03 p.m. EST Saturday, November 26, 2005
The window to launch the first Falcon 1 rocket has been extended by two hours, SpaceX officials said.
Praying....
They need to be extra careful.
I'm pretty sure they won't be smoking around the fuel...
So I guess you and I have been wasting our time posting meaningless threads about a fictitious company that is starting to do fictitious things in space.
They have extended the launch window to 7PM PST (10PM EST). They may need time to bring in another tank of LOX or two to refill the rocket's LOX tank.
Did a check on the current weather.
You can see satellite photos here but the weather radar is not available.
http://www.rts-wx.com/
Others:
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/91366.html
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/obhistory/PKWA.html
Kind of interesting. The Atlas was retired and long gone, but there were a couple of true believers who kept the rocket alive and brought it back. Gov't sure wasn't interested. The Delta also underwent a massive redesign so not much is left of the old Thor. Boeing is still more or less a private company. Pegasus, I don't know, but it seems to have started as a sounding rocket and has launched hundreds of small satellites. Thiokol is building the new CEV launcher, and they probably wouldn't exist at all without their military and NASA contracts, but they are a private company. Point, if there is one, is that private industry and gov't do a lot of business together; it's not easy to find a private business that doesn't have some gov't contract work, SpaceDev included.
The SpaceX team has successfully resolved the launch pad tank problem, clearing the way for liftoff the Falcon 1 rocket at 7:50 p.m. EST.
The payload is a DARPA project. These people are not entirely free of the perfume of gov't work.
Ten minutes?
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