Mid-Atlantic Commercial Spaceport Makes First Launch 67
PeeAitchPee writes "East Coast residents of the US were treated to the first launch from the mid-Atlantic region's commercial spaceport. The 69-foot Minotaur I rocket soared from the launch pad at 7 a.m. ET, after teams spent the week resolving a glitch in software for one of the satellites that had scrubbed a liftoff on Monday. I witnessed the launch while driving to BWI airport this morning and it was beautiful! It left a zig-zag contrail in the southern sky and the separation / ignition of one of the upper stages was clearly visible." The spaceport, a commercial collaboration of Virginia and Maryland, is on the Delmarva peninsula south of the Maryland line, just west of Chincoteague Island.
TSA (Score:3, Funny)
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Fun with kids (Score:5, Funny)
Mmm (Score:2, Insightful)
Haha. You totally pwned that kid. That'll teach him to trust you when he wants to learn something. </sarcasm>
I'm sorry, but I've never understood the joy some people find in deceiving children who come to them with honest questions. Those kids want to learn the truth and you tell them a lie for your own amusement while pretending to help them.
It's just like religion.
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I'm sorry, but I've never understood the joy some people find in deceiving children who come to them with honest questions. Those kids want to learn the truth and you tell them a lie for your own amusement while pretending to help them.
It's just like religion.
It's the same sense of "joy" that leads to child molestation/rape, violations of the people's trust by coaches, pastors, cub/boy/girl scout leaders, teachers, businesses, governments ... and folks that would mod it "5, Funny". From the same folks that brought the planet "home invasion burglaries/killings" for the sake of "discovering new worlds ... (just a few "savages" running around not exploiting anything)"; snatching artifacts of those folks, sticking them in a museum and claiming that the reason the
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You're not a very subtle one, are you. The only "children" at whom my humor was aimed were the ones here on slashdot that can't spot a bit of satire when they see it. Lighten up a little bit. Of course I didn't say that to a kid - I said it to this audience to paint a rath
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No! No no no. It seems I'm mistaken, and that is every bit completely true.
Minotaur, eh? (Score:3, Funny)
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That might be just a wee bit of a stretch for the funny.
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That might be just a wee bit of a stretch for the funny.
I got email just today about a revolutionary new product that could help that...
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"69"..."phallic"...*snicker*
How long before space tourism is widespread? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How long before space tourism is widespread? (Score:4, Informative)
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Worth every penny
- DaftShadow
shameless plug (Score:2, Funny)
Mid-Atlantic? Stupid name for a region. (Score:1, Insightful)
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Ok, so the first American settlers had no clue where they were either...
It was a joke, get over it...
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Mid-(Atlantic Coast)
NOT (Mid-Atlantic) Coast, as there isn't any coast in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Naming a region of land using the name of the adjoining body of water is quite common. More clues: Canal Street isn't actually IN the canal, the Channel Ports actually only touch the English Channel. It also works the other way: the South China Sea isn't in southern China. Not to mention that the Mediterranean Sea is not actually in the middle of the Ea
"Coast"? What coast? (Score:2)
Mid-(Atlantic Coast)
NOT (Mid-Atlantic) Coast, as there isn't any coast in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sorry, but I read the article carefully and also searched in my browser and failed to find the word "coast" in it. Perhaps there is a convention to call a certain part of the US coast the "Mid-Atlantic", but that's certainly not well known in the rest of the world.
For anyone who isn't a "Merkin" and is interested in space exploration, the expression "Mid-At
The real news is... (Score:3, Funny)
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anyone know of a launch schedule? (Score:2)
so how will the spaceport industry be commoditized (Score:1)
Saskatchewan port still in progress (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be nice to have a "northerly" launch point, even though it's more common to have pads closer to the equator.
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http://davinciproject.com/news/index.php [davinciproject.com]
Looks like a boondoggle (Score:1, Insightful)
The article states that the rocket used was cobbled together from unused military rockets. It also mentions that the area is depressed and is looking to bootstrap itself into economic health through this venture.
I see a fleecing of the taxpayer going on here, as the rocket used came from the military (all ready paid for by the taxpayer -- though its refurbishment for use with a satellite might not have been. I see the land being acquired at taxpayer expense and I see the first launch being paid for by the
Re:Looks like a boondoggle (Score:4, Informative)
This is not a new construction. This is land (and launch pads) leased from the Wallops Island [nasa.gov] facility. NASA has been launching stuff from there for decades.
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This is land (and launch pads) leased from the Wallops Island [nasa.gov] facility. NASA has been launching stuff from there for decades.
You are right, though it's my understanding that the land was actually purchased, along with rights-of-way enabling vehicular traffic to the now privatized (at taxpayer expense) launch area. But even if it is leased, it's a privatization paid for by the citizens of the area in order to boost employment, which is a kind of a boondoggle. This is another means of getting money from ta
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Looks like the taxpayers just got boondoggled out of roughly double the amount of money it would have taken...
I don't suppose you have any backup for that claim, do you?
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Re:Looks like a boondoggle (Score:5, Informative)
So what if it's a economically challened area, the STATE (and then states) funded the launch pad, NOT the feds. They are lifting themselves up for their own area, not looking for federal handouts. And ranges DON'T hire rocket scientists at all (unless the scientist is looking for a stiff pay cut). These are typical building maintenance and electronic types. Even if they could launch from their own port, it presents two problems. ALL federally controlled space ports are overpriced since their government jobs, and they want/need to have launch sites in different areas to allow different orbital insertion planes. The bottom line is the military likes having places like this or Spaceport Alaska to give them more options and lower overhead.
You should also point to this launch site, since it's a heck of a lot closer:
http://www.spacetoday.org/Rockets/Spaceports/Laun
And no, most military launches aren't any more secure than civilian launches. EVERYBODY is concerned when there is a multi-million dollar highly-explosive vehicle sitting on the launchpad. Only some launches are under super tight security (and contained unlabelled/mis-labelled cargo).
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OK, I've been seriously modded down for my post (parent). I tend to not be modded down.
You prove my point here. The military rockets are developed and paid for by the military. Then they're retrofitted (at the public's expense, which is my point) for "non-military" use. Then they're used for a military test (actually two). Your $6 Million figure is probably pretty realistic in terms of the civilian cost -- the total cost of the program was stated in the article.
What I'm getting at is this money is all tax
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Is anyone else curious why the "space industry" can't seem to bootstrap itself? There have been hundreds of research teams and thousands of launches of variuos kinds over the last 40-odd years and yet we still spend weeks on the launch pad trying to clear up a software glitch!
It seems to me that they need to rethink the model and redesign the way we do space launches. Before BitTorrent downloads could be fast if you had the right connection. They would be unrealiable if they were too long however. Afte
I saw it (Score:5, Interesting)
As I watched today, I said, "What's that?". To the east a thin bright white contrail grew longer and longer. What's that? I had no idea. Something "shiny" was drawing a line on the sky. The contrail quickly went from a line to jaggy. My guess - Something must be traveling vertical, going through different wind layers.
Acceleration was easily visible - not at all like a cruising plane. It changed course from what may have been nearly vertical to something much closer to horizontal. At times, a long "wake" was visible - a bright line vee from the base of the "shiny thing".
I had no idea what I was looking at. Now I do.
Shiny? The rocket exhaust flame? The distance from Bowie to Wallops is on the order of 100 miles, I can't have been seeing the rocket itself.
It might be decade or so since that last time I've seen a "not looking for it" launch display from the Wallops area.
Re:I saw it (Score:4, Funny)
Senic route (Score:1)
It left a zig-zag contrail in the southern sky and the separation / ignition of one of the upper stages was clearly visible.
Because going straight up is just too easy.
Also aboard the rocket is NASA's GeneSat-1 satellite, which carries a harmless strain of E. coli bacteria as part of an experiment to study the long-term effects of space on living organisms.
Until they get hit from all the radiation from the sun spots this week. Let me be the first to welcome our new E. coli overlords.
The delay add
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Video of Launch and More Info (Score:1, Informative)
smoke trails (Score:4, Funny)
The nice thing about solid fuel rockets (as opposed to liquid-fuel), is that they leave a nice, visible trail as they ascend, which often persists for 30 minutes or more. Here on the W/C, we get to see minuteman missile tests out of Vandenberg 2-3 times a year. (mostly in the middle of the night, though).
When you see something like an Atlas or Delta go up, there isn't much of a trail at all, so if you aren't watching closely, you can miss it.
Of course, there are some bad things about solid-fuel rockets; the exhaust is often pretty nasty stuff, corrosive, and toxic. Plus, you can't throttle them back or shut them off if something goes wrong. On the other hand, they're so simple, mechanically, you're not likely to need to throttle them back.
But the best thing about solids, is that they usually supplement the larger Atlas and Delta vehicles, and you get to hear rocket scientists talk about "strap-ons".
Mid Atlantic? (Score:2, Insightful)
Saw it from Pittsburgh (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/10552546
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Obligatory Star Wars Quote: (Score:2)