Unmanned NASA-contracted rocket explodes; damage is 'significant'

[mongers]

I was at college (junior high equiv. 16-18 year olds) at the time of the first launch and they stopped classes so we could see it live.   

I thought you were a lot younger than that.

No, I just come across as that immature.   

[CountDeMoney]

They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken an incredibly small percentage of everything we have, not just from us, from our fathers and from our fathers' fathers.  And what has NASA ever done for us?

There is not one of us who would not gladly suffer death to rid this country of NASA once and for all.

Stop that.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Apparently the rocket engines this private company used were refurbished 40 year old Russian models. 

But hey, giving NASA money is bad;  let's give it to the private sector instead!

[Elon] Musk: The results are pretty crazy. One of our competitors, Orbital Sciences, has a contract to resupply the International Space Station, and their rocket honestly sounds like the punch line to a joke. It uses Russian rocket engines that were made in the '60s. I don't mean their design is from the '60s—I mean they start with engines that were literally made in the '60s and, like, packed away in Siberia somewhere.

[CountDeMoney]

Government bad, privatization good, etc.

[jimmy olsen]

Government bad, privatization good, etc.

Musk good.

[CountDeMoney]

Government bad, privatization good, etc.

Musk good.

Go fuck yourself with a 40 year old Russian rocket engine.

[Berkut]

Government bad, privatization good, etc.

Yeah, lord knows government rockets never blow up!

[Valmy]

Government bad, privatization good, etc.

Yeah, lord knows government rockets never blow up!

Clearly private industry needs to learn this lesson and not have their customers rely on 40 year old government rockets.

[jimmy olsen]

Government bad, privatization good, etc.

Musk good.

Go fuck yourself with a 40 year old Russian rocket engine.

Look jackass, I'm sure even you can understand that just as there are good and bad governments, there are good and bad companies.

[DontSayBanana]

Yeah, lord knows government rockets never blow up!

Clearly private industry needs to learn this lesson and not have their customers rely on 40 year old government rockets.

It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.

[DontSayBanana]

Yeah, lord knows government rockets never blow up!

Technically true.  Challenger and Columbia were due to rocket damage, but not actually destroyed because of a rocket explosion.  Apollo 1 just caught fire, and all but one of the rest were crashes (the other one being the Soyuz 11 decompression).

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, lord knows government rockets never blow up!

Technically true.  Challenger and Columbia were due to rocket damage, but not actually destroyed because of a rocket explosion.  Apollo 1 just caught fire, and all but one of the rest were crashes (the other one being the Soyuz 11 decompression).

Let's not get in the way of some good ol' fashioned NASA bashing. 

[DontSayBanana]

Oh, excuse me.  ONE government rocket did actually explode: the Ariane 5 in 1996.  Self-destructed due to a floating-point error, which sounds EXACTLY like what's been described happened here.

[Berkut]

Yeah, lord knows government rockets never blow up!

Technically true.  Challenger and Columbia were due to rocket damage, but not actually destroyed because of a rocket explosion.  Apollo 1 just caught fire, and all but one of the rest were crashes (the other one being the Soyuz 11 decompression).

Let's not get in the way of some good ol' fashioned NASA bashing. 

Yeah, way to focus on the actual point, rather than complete and utter bullshit.

[Berkut]

Oh, excuse me.  ONE government rocket did actually explode: the Ariane 5 in 1996.  Self-destructed due to a floating-point error, which sounds EXACTLY like what's been described happened here.

You are excused for being a pedantic douchebag.