NASA test rocket explodes A NASA rocket carrying two hypersonic experiments this morning exploded shortly after take-off from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the agency reports. The Alliant Tech Systems ALV X-1 was carrying the HYBOLT experiment designed to "obtain unique high-speed flight data for fundamental boundary layer transition flow …
"debris being sighted on land. This debris could be hazardous"
Damn right the debris could be hazardous - if it fell on your head it would be hazardous. Sounds like they're trying to guard some secret military tech... cue lots of dead cows (and people making model volcanoes out of mashed 'tata)
How long before some of this turns up on ebay?
seems to me that this would be the most ideal way to cover up a very large budget scientific project gone totally wrong...
or indeed to steal the money that was supposed to have been spent on the 'devices' in that rocket, then put a bunch of scrap in the rocket and have it blow up on or shortly after takeoff.... then claim insurance too ;)
No doubt, stupid NASA. The innocent victim in this case, and I'll take this directly from the article and bold it for you, is "THE ROCKET'S MAKER ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS"
I'll forgive the obvious misguided attempt to bash a US government organization on the internet because it is so rarely done, and because NASA does have its failures (some colossal at that!).
Reducing their funding and increasing the bureaucracy over the past 50 or so years couldn't have helped.
Just remember, there are guys just like you who work at NASA. Lucky lucky NASA.
...the title should read "Alliant Systems test rocket explodes," since it was designed and built by Alliant, not by NASA?
In any event, the rocket parts very well could be hazardous. Alliant builds solid-fuel rockets, not liquid-fuel rockets. Perchlorate compounds, which are key ingredients in solid rocket fuel, are pretty nasty. In addition to being strong oxidizers, they're also toxic, and can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin.
in other news, NASA prepares another test launch from it's new launch rig "Charliefoxtrot". This was after launching from the town of Murphy, Ala was considered tempting fate too much...
It was aliens I tells ya! Alien overlords afraid Earthlings would get hyperspace technology....or was that hypersonic technology...well..close enough since Earth isn't their primary language...
Erm, as someone's pointed out, it wasn't a NASA rocket, it was an Alliant Techsystems rocket.
But most importantly, you've neglected to point out that it was a deliberate explosion. The rocket didn't follow its predetermined course and had to be detonated remotely to ensure it didn't do any proper damage. The failure they're investigating is why it veered off course, not why it unexpectedly blew up.
As for videos, try nasa.gov -> news
AC @ 14:40 - got the joke - good expansion on my theme ;o)
Jesse didn't ... the reason NASA are useless is because they DON'T have people like me.
AC @ 15:22 - doesn't even warrant a mention and I see a fellow of my septic isle got there first - cheers Zmodem
Bryce Prewitt - good point, well made, I stand corrected
Solomon Grundy - yes mate... the comment was supposed to be loaded with a good dollop of sarcasm - sorry you missed it. Fool? I think not. ZEEJ.
AC 17:32 - thanks for the update - it's nice to know that this particular waste of public funds was deliberate.
n ... regarding "HMS Camden Lock", eh? No other country in the world has such big lunatic asylums... I wouldn't go shouting that out either.
StopthePropaganda wrote > NASA prepares another test launch from it's new launch rig "Charliefoxtrot"
Got to video this one, to catch the sassay, the heel-drag, and the swish corner turns, before the final come-down.
When robots do the Charleston then machines can be considered to possess cultural reflexivity, and RoTM will be past tense. RIP IT Up now!
Of course old Blighty has a proud space history...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b4WzWFKQ20
And no, no one has ever answered the question: How are we going to reuse it?
But to be fair, the rocket was designed and built by ATK. NASA only paid to put two experiments on it. Of course, are not ATK the same people who make the polaris and other solid rocket nuke missles???!! Hmmm......
Well what do you expect. NASA == National Aeronautics and Space Administration. See the last word: ADMINISTRATION.
It is an administration, run by administrators for the benefit of administrators. The two top posts are Bush appointees.
There is nothing about science in the name, so why expect it to be run on a scientific basis?
Still, for an organisation that has been pushing tin into space for over 50 years you might hope for a better track record, with shuttle launches being almost mundane. Approx 5 launches a year and approx one in 60 resulting in the deaths of all crew members, they've hardly made space flight routine.
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