NASA's Space Balloon Smashes Car In Australia 174
Humunculus writes "Of more worldly issues, NASA's latest multimillion-dollar stratosphere-bound balloon launch has gone horribly wrong and crashed into a car, turning it over and narrowly missing two elderly people who were observing the launch. The payload fared worse, reportedly being smashed into a 'thousand pieces.'"
Who authorized go on launch? (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems in the very beginning of the clip that there was not enough upward force on the cable for a proper lift off. The launch release caused the payload to immediately swing like a pendulum and there was not enough launch height for the amount of vertical lift being applied to avoid the payload swinging into the ground.
I'm assuming that the actual near vertical crash was due to some kind of abort procedure initiated as a result of the payload being dragged across the ground because there was an (off screen) catastrophic balloon failure at that point.
Re:humm? (Score:2, Insightful)
Slashdot posts link to articles?
Why didn't someone tell me this earlier?
because you're the kind of fuckin' idiot who hijacks conversations by asking dumb questions that well-meaning but not-so-bright people waste time answering, creating thread after thread of redundant posts (usually modded Insightful for some reason) that any intelligent reader has to sort through before getting to read any actual conversation. like when you ask something that you'd know the answer to if you read the fucking article, or sometimes even the fucking summary, and some big-heart-but-little-brain person answers your question instead of telling you to stop being so damned lazy.
you might have a really high IQ but if you need other people to find, read, and process your information for you, then you're still a moron
Re:+1 for the Idiocracy (Score:2, Insightful)
More money on education? We've been cutting public education budgets (vs inflation), since Reagan.
Maybe that's why we don't have smarter people.
Re:+1 for the Idiocracy (Score:4, Insightful)
NASA's performance was once the measure of the USA's intellectual success...
Sadly, it still is.
Re:massive miscalculation (Score:3, Insightful)
which begs the question.. why the hell where they lifting a partially inflated balloon's payload with a damn crane???
a crane to get it off the truck - Yes..
tie downs while inflating - Yes...
lifting up 2 tons with a crane while inflating an attached high alt balloon??? who thought that was a good idea?? and what was the reasoning for it??