Wednesday, September 14, 2005

SpaceX engine failure

Space.com has a generally benign news item on SpaceX's engine failure. It's pretty much confirmaion of Jonathan Goff's inquiry of a couple of day ago.

The more general media hasn't picked it up yet, but when they do I expect them to cast doubt on SpaceX in general and Elon in particular. The real establishment types will stretch it to cover all of alt.space. I'm just waiting for comparisons with the Soviet N1 and the early US failures. At least Space.com gave Elon a chance to speak. Most others won't, or will mis-quote him horribly. Color me cynical.

What can I do about it? Not much - just blog at it for a while, and hope like hell Elon is right and the Falcon launch is successful. God, I wish them luck!

And when they do fly - I'm going to have a PAARRTYYY!

Speaking of flying, does anyone know if SpaceX will do a webcast of the launch?