Well, actually a fifth chance, when they were only supposed to get four. The judges have ruled that Masten can have one more shot this morning.
I can understand why Armadillo and Unreasonable Rocket might be upset about this, though Unreasonable Rocket has more of a legitimate gripe, since Armadillo benefited from lenient judges themselves last year when they won Level I.
Anyway, here’s hoping for success, finally. Clark has links to resources for following it.
…have to cave in to the fascist dictator huggers in Washington. This is shameful. Obama has given this country something to really apologize for.
[Update mid morning]
The Obama team did an excellent job of undermining the Honduran economy by cutting off economic assistance, throttling tourism with travel warnings, yanking visas away from Hondurans, and creating a climate of massive uncertainty that spooked U.S. investors and businesses. The U.S. embassy in Honduras did yeomen’s work watching out for the interests of the Zelaya clan, leaving many to wonder which side it was pulling for. In short, against a small, friendly, anti-Chávez ally, the administration mustered the sort of muscle it would never dare use against Iran, Russia, or Venezuela.
Guess it’s just more of that bullying people that you vastly outweighspeaking truth to power, like they did with Fox News.
[Late morning update]
Heh:
…the administration can’t show that it actually saved any jobs — other than Manuel Zelaya’s.
That one may prove very expensive.
What we have here is an interplanetary travesty of justice:
…if the plaintiff is not a person in that he is neither a human being nor a corporation, he cannot be a plaintiff as contemplated by the Rules of Civil Procedure. The entire basis of Mr. Joly’s actions is that he is a martian, not a human being. There is certainly no suggestion that he is a corporation. I conclude therefore, that Mr. Joly, on his pleading as drafted, has no status before the Court.
Careful, you’re going to make him very very angry indeed.
I just realized that it was eighty years ago that the stock-market crash occurred, setting off the initial recession that Hoover and Roosevelt turned into the Great Depression. And we don’t seem to have learned the lesson. In fact, George Soros is spending millions to ensure that we don’t. Thanks, George!
[Update a few minutes later]
A little relevant history.
Clark Lindsey is tracking progress up in Mojave today. The window presumably just opened.
[Mid-afternoon update]
Well, that’s it for Masten’s season. No chance to win Level II, but the second-place purse will remain on the table, unless the Pauls Breed can pull out a miracle in the next couple days. They apparently made the first three-minute flight, but had a fire on landing, and burned some sensor cables that they either had no replacements for, or insufficient time to replace within the window. But at least they’ll take the second-place for Level I (again, assuming that Unreasonable Rocket can’t beat their landing accuracy). Good luck to all contenders, now and in the future.
I will note that the 180-second test they did on Tuesday was tethered — Xoie had never flown in free flight, I assume because they simply ran out of time. But that shows why you have to do a full dress rehearsal (as Armadillo learned a couple years ago). It will be interesting to find out what caused the fire, if they can figure it out. Anyway, it’s a shame.
[Bumped]
Apparently, in addition to the recontact after stage separation and tumbling second “stage,” the parachutes on the Corndog failed and damaged the cases of the first stage. But hey, what do you want for half a billion dollars? I mean, besides a whole new launch company and launch vehicle, as SpaceX managed to do for that amount.
[Update a few minutes later]
The obvious question, of course, is if the recontact damaged the chute system.
Does it mean anything?
This looks like a good cause.