Musings of a Recovering Lutheran: Failure to launch
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 

Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Isaiah 6:8 (KJV)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Failure to launch

Professor Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has been closely following the efforts of private companies to provide space launch capabilities. Yesterday, SpaceX came within a few seconds of a successful launch of its Dragon unmanned spacecraft that was to have rendezvoused with the International Space Station. The launch was to have taken place at NASA's Cape Canaveral launch facilities.

SpaceX is one of several private companies that are seeking to fill the gap left by the downsizing of NASA. Another is Quicklaunch, which is working on the idea of using hydrogen gas launchers to fire unmanned payloads into Earth orbit.

2 comments:

Ken & Carol said...

You are telling us that a Federal government agency is actually downsizing. Hard to believe. Have you notified Prof. C N Parkinson?

Recovering Lutheran said...

NASA may be getting smaller, but the Federal government is certainly not. Any savings from cutting NASA is simply spent elsewhere - and more besides.

It's simply shuffling deck chairs on the sinking Titanic while shaking down the passengers for more dough.