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)
Fun with kids (Score:5, Funny)
Minotaur, eh? (Score:3, Funny)
How long before space tourism is widespread? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Minotaur, eh? (Score:2, Funny)
That might be just a wee bit of a stretch for the funny.
The real news is... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Minotaur, eh? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Minotaur, eh? (Score:2, Funny)
"69"..."phallic"...*snicker*
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".
Re:I saw it (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Mmm (Score:1, Funny)
shameless plug (Score:2, Funny)