back to article NASA suffers rocket fail 20 seconds from firing

Troubled US space agency NASA yesterday scrubbed a test-firing of the Ares I rocket - which will carry American astronauts into space after the space shuttle fleet retires - with just 20 seconds left on the countdown. Meanwhile other problems have seen this week's launch of the shuttle Discovery delayed, and a moon-impact probe …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    NASA c@ck-up...

    ... or the Clangers "mole" in NASA at work?

    No Clangers icon, so...

  2. Number6

    First Test Passed!

    Well, the new ARES1 has passed its first test. It has demonstrated that it can introduce several days' delay into the launch programme, just like the Shuttle.

  3. Scott 51
    Thumb Up

    USA Citizen

    As a USA citizen I am appauled by the lack of interest in this country for both Science and engineering. NASA should be in the top ten agengies that get US funds in this country but in reallity its ranking is more like 400. Our kids in this current generation are dumber than a box of hammers but they want to make a desent living. You cant do that when you cant count to ten. Although rappers have been succesful for years in making that type of money.

    Stupid tax programs----Our stupid "Cash for Clunkers" program desighned to help the ailing auto industry and others like them only sent billions of dollars to over-seas auto manufactures. These are the types of programs that eat into the meat of the USA and destroys us from the inside out. We are being sold out by a bunch of low IQ morons who are getting rich based on these insane programs.

    These idiotic programs should be diverted to colleges and there teachers, thats where the future lays. But that will never happen as long as we have special interst lobbiest--which should be outlawed, and politicians and CEO's who sell out their country for a few bucks.

    God damn them all.

  4. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Re: God damn them all.

    "Stupid tax programs----Our stupid "Cash for Clunkers" program desighned to help the ailing auto industry and others like them only sent billions of dollars to over-seas auto manufactures. These are the types of programs that eat into the meat of the USA and destroys us from the inside out. We are being sold out by a bunch of low IQ morons who are getting rich based on these insane programs." ..... By Scott 51 Posted Friday 28th August 2009 12:53 GMT

    And as you say, Scott 51, they're laughing all the way to the bank ..... http://cryptogon.com/?p=10546 .... so that is what needs to be changed and attacked. Low IQ morons who are getting rich based on these insane programs,that is, only there may be an inordinate number of them working in Banking Board Rooms, .... although to imagine that they are working, or what they are doing is working, is most misleading.

  5. Steven Hunter
    Headmaster

    @Scott 51

    I too am dismayed and "appauled" by how stupid the kids these days are. "There" so stupid, almost as if someone "desighned" them that way!

    Heck, some of these kids can't even spell simple words like "appalled", "they're", and "designed"!

    PS: The money that the *government* spent on the CARS program went to the people who bought the new cars, NOT to the car companies. Besides, the top two cars sold in the program, (Toyota Camry and Honda Civic) are both manufactured in the US. The former is actually made in Lafayette, IN and Civics are being produced in Greensburg, IN. Not to mention the the dealerships' employees, the truck drivers that delivered them to the dealer, and so-forth all got paid. So all in all not too bad a deal.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    D'oh !

    Only 20 seconds left in the countdown ? I'm no rocket scientist but even the quickest glance at the picture shows the spaceship is STILL ON IT'S SIDE !!!!

    How they got to a man on the sun I'll never know.

  7. Scott 51
    WTF?

    re:steven hunter

    Where do you think the profits go? They money goes back to the homeland. Sure there are some small benifits, but nothing for the LONG term. Get it?

    Jesus christ all, get off the spelling high horse. Im not going to waste my fucking time to make these little snippets perfect in spelling. If thats all you worry about in these little forums? If so, I worry more about that than the kids who really cant speel, er spell.

  8. Remy Redert

    @Scott 51

    Either you spend a little time and effort spell checking your text before posting or everyone else gets to spend time figuring out what the hell you meant to say.

    If I come across a badly spelled post, I will quite simply skip it nine times of ten because I don't waste my fucking time, as you so aptly put it.

  9. Midnight

    Re: USA Citizen

    Well, I'm ageorged and arringoed at the state of spelling. It's jest plane rediculous.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    @Scott 51

    Scott - I think you are missing some basic economics. Money can't actually leave a country. All imports and exports ultimately have to be balanced in one form or another - be it by trade or by exchange rate movements - and in this case the majority of money generated by the cash-for-clunkers program would have been moved through the US economy anyway, as others have pointed out.

    One exception to the basics of trade of course is the US itself which can print a $50-100 bill for every barrel of oil that is extracted pretty much anywhere in the world without it leading to US inflation. This has propped up the US economy for years and with oil ultimately running out this should be a much bigger worry to US citizens than anything else.

    That said - I do agree with you about how dumb the majority of citizens are - it's the same in the UK and it drives me nuts and makes me very depressed for the future.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "They money goes back to the homeland."

    Profits go to the shareholders, typically. You could buy shares, too, if you want. Probably you already own some, indirectly.

    You should probably stop thinking of it in terms of "US" versus "them".

  12. Chris C

    @Scott

    "Jesus christ all, get off the spelling high horse. Im not going to waste my fucking time to make these little snippets perfect in spelling."

    And you want the US to produce better scientists? I hate to be the one to tell you this, but scientists care about such pesky things as accuracy. I can just picture it now: "Uh, boss, I think I made a boo-boo. I told the beancounters to buy 500 gallons of liquid HG instead of HE. My bad."

    More on-the-point, I do agree with you regarding education in this country. I too am deeply disappointed with the current situation. However, NASA is not the way to go. You want to increase people's interest in science? Great. But let's do it with science that may actually help us instead of wasting countless billions on worthless space exploration. Newsflash: going to the moon and/or Mars gives us literally zero benefits (aside from the economic benefits of employing people and buying materials).

    Also, if you ask me, it's too late to do anything about it. We don't have a problem with "the kids" being stupid and/or not being interested in science. We have a problem with virtually everybody, all ages, being stupid. People who were once intelligent have become dribbling idiots unable to think for themselves. It seems to me that this started at about the time "reality TV" (Fear Factor, Survivor, etc) became popular (and, now that I think about it, right around "9/11"). Yes, a lot of people were stupid before that, but that's when I noticed it becoming a growing epidemic.

    The biggest problem you see in the US, and the reason why we will likely never regain our status as a real superpower, is greed. Rich people (CEOs especially, but also entertainers such as athletes, actors, and musicians) feel this need to horde as much money as they can, far more than they could ever hope to spend in ten lifetimes. They will do literally anything to make more money. A CEO is applauded for saving the company money, with no regard or sympathy for the (tens of) thousands of people he fired to gain those savings. Banks and mortgage companies give mortgages to people they know cannot afford them, and when the people are unable to pay after their variable APR goes up, the banks act surprised and beg the government for handouts because, like individuals, they refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.

    But going back to the moon is going to change all that. Right. We'll show the world! We'll prove how good we are, and get people interested in science, by repeating what we did (with a lot less effort and expense) forty years ago.

  13. Steven Hunter
    Troll

    @Scott 51

    I'll be sure to tell the folks down the road who made those Toyotas that their continued employment is just a "small benefit". Like it or not, we live in a global economy and what's good for them is good for us. Toyota making a profit lets them keep manufacturing plants open in the US, which is good for our economy. This means more jobs in the LONG run.

    PS: I wouldn't have bothered to point out your glaring spelling errors if it weren't for the fact that you were complaining about how dumb the kids are these days (it's called irony).

    PPS: While I'm being pedantic, you're a US Citizen, not a USA Citizen.

  14. Richard 12 Silver badge

    @scott51

    All the decent browsera have nbuilt-in speelclunkers.

    The one in myne underlind in brite red neerly evry wurd in this post.

  15. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    @Scott 51

    FYI

    Spell check is your friend.

    Grammar is not just for defining computer languages.

  16. Gene Cash Silver badge
    FAIL

    @Scott 51

    You're a perfect example of why this country has gone to crap. People that don't give a damn about the details or the quality of their work, and want to blame it all on others, and then wonder why they produce total illiterate shit. You just ride on the backs of the 10% that do actual work.

    Yes, spelling and grammar matters, especially when it gets in the way of trying to read what you're trying to say.

    I deal with folks like you all day. Go away little man. You're the reason I won't buy American-made anything.

  17. Bucky 2
    Grenade

    Not "fail"

    It's "failURE."

    "NASA suffers rocket failURE 20 seconds from firing."

    Also, it's "Think differentLY," and "Eating WELL in the neighborhood." (I'm pretty sure only Satan can "eat good.")

  18. Martin 6 Silver badge

    Does the shuttle qualify?

    They have 3 left?

    Assuming the new rocket foes more miles/gallon you could get what $4000 cash back for each of them. That's got to help with Nasa's budget

  19. Glen 1
    Headmaster

    is it just me?

    every time a post starts with "learn how to spell" (or whatever) i skip it.

    If the first thing that occurs to the poster is that the spelling of a previous post is incorrect, then they obviously don't have have anything more important to say, and can be ignored without missing out on some great epiphany.

    While I dislike text speak as much as the next adult, I won't begrudge people a few typos. As for spell checkers on "decent" browsers, I currently use FF 3, and don't have one.

  20. This post has been deleted by its author

  21. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    @Glen 1

    "every time a post starts with "learn how to spell" (or whatever) i skip it."

    Ordinarily I might agree with you. Some very technically complex material has been presented with basic spelling or grammar mistakes (basic enough for me to pick anyway). It does not make the material any less accurate.

    However as the post concerns education and indirectly literacy we might expect the post to have been given a bit of polish in the spelling department.

    BTW complaints about the falling level of US students IQ have been going on since the 1950s with television being predicted to produce a huge mass of "Marching morons" who would be useless to society.

    I would strongly doubt average IQ has fallen but student motivation and teaching skills and motivation be looked at.

    Students might be as ignorant as a box of hammers, but they are not as dumb. Ignorance can be fixed. Stupidity is forever.

  22. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    A few typos ?

    It is my opinion that if you're incapable of clearly stating that which you wish to say, then your opinion is not of much worth anyway.

    If you know what you want to say and you can express it to others without error, then you're worth listening to.

    One typo can be accepted, because we are all, as a civilization, in much too much of a hurry, but a flurry of "cant", "there" instead of "their", accompanied by other glaring mistakes is no longer a typo, it is a sure sign of an incomplete mind, one whose ramblings are best ignored until it grows up and learns how to wield a language properly.

  23. jim 41
    Go

    @everyone who replied to Scott51

    You all beat me to it :P

  24. MajorTom
    Pint

    @Chris C

    Spot on, friend. I'm in agreement with all your points except for manned space exploration. That's still important to me (emotionally), although yeah, I know it's wasteful and we've not got any compelling reasons to visit the moon or Mars. But still...I'm praying for the success of SpaceX. NASA can't / won't do it? Let Elon Musk try.

    Meanwhile, regarding the tired observation that "people are getting stupider" I have my own theory: There aren't necessarily more stupid people than before, but the stupid people we've got have been getting more "air time" than ever before, on TV, through the Internet, etc. Before perhaps 1990, we could more easily ignore stupid opinions, but not today.

    On the other hand, the rise of the Internet has made it possible for me to enjoy the clever posts made by so many brilliant people with time on their hands. Here's to you.

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