Posted on 09/02/2011 2:11:28 PM PDT by Red Badger
An unmanned spaceship funded by Internet billionaire Jeff Bezos suffered a major failure during a recent test flight, according to U.S. government and industry officials, highlighting the dramatic risks of private space ventures.
The vertical takeoff and landing spacecraft, developed by closely held Blue Origin LLC, was on a suborbital flight from the company's West Texas spaceport last week, these officials said, when ground personnel lost contact and control of the vehicle. The exact nature and cause of the failure were unclear, but remnants of the spacecraft could provide clues for investigators.
Parts of the vehicle were recovered on the ground and are now being analyzed by company experts, according to government and industry officials.
The mishap dealt a potentially major blow to the ambitions of Mr. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com Inc., to develop a reliable system for blasting tourists and astronauts out of the atmosphere.
The serious malfunctions, which haven't been disclosed by the company or reported previously, also could set back White House plans to promote a range of commercially developed spacecraft to transport crews to the International Space Station by the second half of this decade.
Championed by President Barack Obama's administration, the goal is to support a number of rival projects, including Blue Origin, to ensure that in the end the U.S. will have alternatives to reach the orbiting station, following last month's permanent retirement of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's space shuttle fleet.
A spokesman for Blue Origin, based in Kent, Wash., declined to comment. Officials at both NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration were told in advance about the launch and are aware of the failure, according to people familiar with the matter. But spokesmen for the agencies also declined to comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Peculiar sentence, considering the deadly record of public space ventures.
What was that movie where some guys tried to build a vertical take-off and landing rocket?
Failures during testing are part & parcel of building something new, in my experience.
But hopefully not too many, or too costly !
“Peculiar sentence, considering the deadly record of public space ventures.”
Clearly a bias of the author showing. Space travel is a risky activity, period.
Having said that, all of us, (the government), can do some things better or absorb risks easier than the private sector. I know that’s not a popular sentiment here, and I’ll be flamed... have at it.
The death of NASA is going to cost us in many ways.
“We hope you enjoyed flying Blue Origin Spacelines. Have a nice day.”
Amazon gladly lets you return damaged merchandise.
Warp factor 3, Mr. Sulu........
Anyone else remember the crazy hype about “Project Ginger” and IT with Bezos in the mix? And what came out was . . . the Segway. D’oh!!!
And I thought wind turbines were supposed to have low carbon emissions!!
We’re looking at/considering a photovoltaic system. We’ve gotten some bids...one guy’s bid told the number of cubic tons of CO2 that wouldn’t occur due to our use of his proposed system. I called him back with some questions and finished with...”You say I’ll save 7.2 cubic tons of CO2...can you tell me how many tires I’ll need to burn to make that up?” To his credit, he laughed heartily.
if the private sector had the budget of NASA we would have landed on Mars by now I think
“if the private sector had the budget of NASA we would have landed on Mars by now I think”
And there is the problem. There is no immediate gain in going to Mars. Some of the benefit is as simple as public pride, a national cohesion. The other benefit is the discoveries made along the way.
A very difficult business model, which is way no private concern has that kind of budget.
There are things that are better done by all of us... national defense comes to mind. I know the reply is a private concern could do national defense more efficiently. But would you really want to contract out defense to a concern that didn’t necessarily have your best interests in mind? When American corporations move, we’re told they’re corporations with no national allegiance. Ok, so if you contract out defense to a company and they sell developments to China... it’s just business.
Government does not own space and the government does not have the right to waste our money by spending billions going to these places. This is not a legitimate government function.
Just because the government can steal our money does not mean it “can afford” it better than the private sector. That is the argument used for nationalized healthcare, government ownership of industry and every other socialist nightmare.
“This is not a legitimate government function.”
You are myopic, and wrong. But that won’t limit you, we have a president who shares that with you.
Project Ginger??? I bet they consulted this ginger about it first.
The question: Do gingers have souls?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY39fkmqKBM
South Park first introduced me to the “ginger” concept :) Thanks for the link!
I still remember the breathless hype about Project Ginger (including Bezos’ hype) and the end result was the Segway. Look how that’s turned out!
What is so sick is that Obama is about to give a “jobs speech” that is going to double down on publicly funded idiocy. Privately funded idiocy is worth mocking - publicly funded stuff (that us taxpayers are funding) is a reason to get really, really angry.
Keep in mind the goal of Leftists is to have the government provide everything including jobs like the way a domesticated farm animal depends on the farmer for everything.
This trend has been happening since the ‘20s/’30s. And as the citizenry has been dumbed down since that time, also, they have been voting in politicians who keep expanding government at the cost of free enterprise capitalism. When Obama talks about creating jobs it’s all about growing government bigger and bigger and bigger until free enterprise has disappeared and everyone is dependent on the government.
Until we turn off the television and take back local control of education this cycle is going to continue until this unsustainable government sprawl collapses not only our economy but every other one connected to us. But don’t worry! They’ll have a solution ready to be implemented and the dumbed down Socialized citizens will demand and vote for it. How many will prove themselves to be and not be Flavor-Aid drinkers when the time comes will be interesting.
How bad does it have to get before we get back to basics? Good question. I like to optimistic and say that it is right around the corner, but the dark side of humanity has a way of thwarting that.
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