Interesting that they launched on the anniversary of the Gagarin and first Shuttle flight. The joke tweets have started already. “Man, North Korean rockets break up faster than a Kardashian marriage.” “It didn’t crash into the sea — it was a successful attack on Aquaman.”
I’ll bet Hilary Rosen is happy that Twitter has found a new distraction. Except for the combined tweets: “That rocket had the same trajectory as Hilary Rosen’s PR career.
We’re hitting the road in a few minutes. I may check in with my phone, but we should be arriving at the conference (Space Access) mid afternoon. I would note that today is the fifty-first anniversary of the first man in orbit (which will be celebrated at parties tonight, including one at the conference) and the thirty-first of the first Shuttle flight.
Over at Open Market, I write about the recent news that Virgin Galactic has gotten some limited ITAR relief, so now it won’t have to get an export license for every furriner it flies from California or New Mexico.
He checks in in comments:
Howdy everyone. Here’s my current status.
I have since been discharged from the hospital (John “JP” Powell, the founder of JP Aerospace was a great help there and setting travel) and am staying with my brother and his family for a few days in Denver before traveling to Yellowstone to start my usual summer-time job of counting beans. I’ll keep the bandages and immobilizing harness thingie on for somewhere around 3 weeks, then about a month later my arm should be back up to strength. My wonderful summer employer at Yellowstone, Xanterra Parks and Resorts has been very understanding.
The JP Aerospace crew managed to recover the final two payloads (which were also the targets of that ill-fated attempt on Tuesday) last Saturday. So we’re looking good on that side.
Thanks to everyone for their care (and Rand for the blog article). I’m doing well.
Good to hear.
We’re still learning them. A lot of this applies to NASA and its “safety culture” as well.
A first-hand report from Jim Oberg, who just got back.
[Late-morning update]
Here’s more at Gizmodo. The satellite can be sun synchronous, or launch on the claimed trajectory, but not both.
I just did a radio interview with Thom Hartmann, in which he postulated that if the proposed homesteading legislation passed, it would result in an Iranian billionaire setting up a military base on the moon from which to bombard us. Or alternately, that I would become a dictator of my own lunar colony. He also didn’t seem to understand the difference between libertarianism and anarchism.
Hokay…
A lot of NASA personnel are unhappy with the agency’s perceived politicized stance on AGW (Hansen isn’t mentioned by name, but one can read between the lines). I’m glad to see former Rockwell colleague Anita Gale on the list.
[Early afternoon update]
More from Anthony Watts, with a bonus shot of a headless Hansen being handcuffed.
The space station finally earns its keep:
Compounds of unmatured malt were sent to the station in an unmanned cargo spacecraft in October last year, along with particles of charred oak.
Scientists want to understand how they interact at close to zero gravity.
NanoRacks LLC, the US company behind the research, has said understanding the influence of gravity could help a number of industries, including the whisky industry, to develop new products in the future.
And those silly people say that space research is a waste of money.