It has to be a sad time for the folks at the Kennedy Space Center… just today they were rolling Discovery out to the launch pad for the next space shuttle flight, one of only four remaining. Many of the folks on the space coast will lose their jobs, since President Obama has canceled NASA’s follow-up to the shuttle program, and to add insult to injury they actually rolled Discovery right past the nearly complete launch pad for the now-canceled Moon program. (That begs the question, do they tear it down now or wait until it’s finished? Does that count as a “saved” job?)
It’s not all bad news though, the completely unproven commercial rocket that the entire United States manned spaceflight program is resting on was turned on for it’s first countdown rehearsal:
Friday’s countdown wet dress rehearsal was “the smoothest test we have conducted to date,” said Tim Buzza, the Falcon 9 launch director.
The booster has spent the last week at Complex 40 after being assembled inside a hangar at the pad’s southern perimeter. Stormy weather and high winds earlier this week pushed the countdown rehearsal to Friday.
After powering up the 15-story rocket, the launch team verified all systems were functioning, performed engine purge checks and cleared workers from the launch pad.
There are a couple more hurdles that the Falcon 9 still has to clear before they’ll be ready for launch, including the Air Force approving the self-destruct system… something you definitely want to have working, especially on a rocket that has never flown before.
Most of me is rooting for SpaceX… I’ve been a big fan of theirs for a long time, and the future of space exploration will depend more on people like Elon Musk than big government agencies like NASA.
Still, handing over the keys of the entire manned spaceflight program to a commercial company that hasn’t even flown the darned rocket yet was an incredibly stupid move… and it would really serve President Obama right if the darned thing blew up on the pad the first time out.
Aw who am I kidding? I just want to see it fly.
Which should happen some time between now and May.
What’s the over/under on successful flights before Congress passes a crippling “Putting people into space tax”?




