Cold News From Outer Space

There's no lack of news this time around and not all of it is good. Fortunately, even some of the bad news isn't so bad.

First off we lose two spacecraft in a matter of days. This is a disaster, because in the case of the Virgin Spacecraft Two, there was a fatality. Then there was the case of the unmanned SpaceX cargo launch that had to be aborted. Spaceflight really doesn't need this kind of disastrous news.

SpaceX says that the flaw in their cargo rocket was caused by their "antique" Soviet engines that were built 40 years ago. That seems reasonable. What isn't so reasonable is that SpaceX was using those engines because they were unable to get American made engines that fit. That is very sad. The once pioneer United States lost the edge.

And the other crash. One brave test pilot lost. It's unclear what happened, though it looked like the wings or entire wing section came loose and started fluttering. Did the pilot unlock the wings too soon? Did the lock fail? It may be a year before we know. The surviving pilot is in no shape to tell us at this time.

The tiny silverish lining is that neither outfit is giving up. In Virgin's case, none of the reservations for future flights have been canceled and in fact, they had two new reservations on the day of the crash. I give those people my heartfelt thanks, as well as Richard Branson himself.

It was a tragedy, but it could have been so much worse. Maybe some company will decide that we need to get American rocket engines back in production. It's been that 40 years. Let's see if we can't do a little better in engine design!

Now on to happier things (at least in one case).

Next week there will be a BIG show! On the 12th the Rosetta probe will land ON a comet core. There was a mission that landed on an asteroid and returned, but this comet is the next best thing to an alien visitor! It was created during the same times as our solar system and gathering samples will tell us all kinds of things. Think about this - if such a comet ever decides to take a shot at Earth, we'll have a far better chance of changing the outcome.
Speaking of far, it will be between 3 and 4 billion miles out when the probe lands.

They're going to be a long way from home!