Saturday, September 3, 2011
On 2:08 PM by Staff No comments

An unmanned spacecraft bankrolled by Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos failed during a recent test flight.
The vehicle became unstable at 45,000 feet (13,700 meters) and ground controllers had to terminate it as a precaution. Additional details about what went wrong were not released.
"Not the outcome any of us wanted, but we're signed up for this to be hard," Bezos wrote in a blog post Friday.
Bezos founded Blue Origin to develop a vertical takeoff and landing rocketship that would fly passengers to suborbital space. It recently won money from NASA to compete to go into orbit as a space taxi now that the space shuttle fleet is retired.
The mishap occurred during a test flight last week from Blue Origin's West Texas spaceport. The ultra-secretive company notified the Federal Aviation Administration about the launch and only acknowledged the accident publicly on Friday.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported about the failure, said the test did not use federal funds and was not part of the development agreement with NASA.
Blue Origin's failure shines a spotlight on the risks of commercial space ventures.
SpaceX, which has a NASA contract to develop a commercial vehicle to haul supplies and astronauts, suffered three rocket failures before it found success. Later this year, the company, run by PayPal founder Elon Musk, will launch a capsule on a cargo test run to the International Space Station.
Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson, lost three workers in 2007 after an explosion rocked a California airport during testing of a propellant system for its space tourism vehicle. The company is currently conducting flight tests in the Mojave Desert and has not set a date for the first passenger flights....More
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Search
Popular Posts
-
The British communications regulator Ofcom has ruled that a pre-scripted bit on the popular BBC TV show Top Gear was racist. While we...
-
(AP) — Paul Simon and his wife, Edie Brickell, were arrested on disorderly conduct charges by officers investigating a family dispute, but...
-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bill Cosby was sued Tuesday by a Southern California woman who claims the comedian molested her in a bedroom of the...
-
It's a story we've seen all too many times. A famous athlete divorces his wife either during his playing career, or just a few years...
-
They don't? Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris have called off their wedding. "The wedding is off," Hefner, 85, tweeted Tuesday. ...
-
Another marriage the Kardashians couldn't keep up. Family matriarch Kris Jenner dispatched her lawyer to Los Angeles Superior Court...
-
Coolio's probably not cool with his son being in jail, but he doesn't have too much room to talk. The rapper's oldest son, 22-ye...
-
Justin Bieber just can't seem to catch a break. The 20-year-old pop star was accused of attempted robbery in Los Angeles for an ...
-
With the news that British R&B star and tabloid target Amy Winehouse has died from as yet undisclosed causes, two things are clear: the ...
-
When Tiki Barber told HBO that he was returning to football because he "needed the game," and because he "needed to prove to ...
Recent Posts
Most Trending
-
The British communications regulator Ofcom has ruled that a pre-scripted bit on the popular BBC TV show Top Gear was racist. While we...
-
(AP) — Paul Simon and his wife, Edie Brickell, were arrested on disorderly conduct charges by officers investigating a family dispute, but...
-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bill Cosby was sued Tuesday by a Southern California woman who claims the comedian molested her in a bedroom of the...
-
It's a story we've seen all too many times. A famous athlete divorces his wife either during his playing career, or just a few years...
-
They don't? Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris have called off their wedding. "The wedding is off," Hefner, 85, tweeted Tuesday. ...
-
Another marriage the Kardashians couldn't keep up. Family matriarch Kris Jenner dispatched her lawyer to Los Angeles Superior Court...
-
Coolio's probably not cool with his son being in jail, but he doesn't have too much room to talk. The rapper's oldest son, 22-ye...
-
Justin Bieber just can't seem to catch a break. The 20-year-old pop star was accused of attempted robbery in Los Angeles for an ...
-
With the news that British R&B star and tabloid target Amy Winehouse has died from as yet undisclosed causes, two things are clear: the ...
-
When Tiki Barber told HBO that he was returning to football because he "needed the game," and because he "needed to prove to ...
Popular Posts
-
The British communications regulator Ofcom has ruled that a pre-scripted bit on the popular BBC TV show Top Gear was racist. While we...
-
(AP) — Paul Simon and his wife, Edie Brickell, were arrested on disorderly conduct charges by officers investigating a family dispute, but...
-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bill Cosby was sued Tuesday by a Southern California woman who claims the comedian molested her in a bedroom of the...
-
It's a story we've seen all too many times. A famous athlete divorces his wife either during his playing career, or just a few years...
-
They don't? Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris have called off their wedding. "The wedding is off," Hefner, 85, tweeted Tuesday. ...
-
Another marriage the Kardashians couldn't keep up. Family matriarch Kris Jenner dispatched her lawyer to Los Angeles Superior Court...
-
Coolio's probably not cool with his son being in jail, but he doesn't have too much room to talk. The rapper's oldest son, 22-ye...
-
Justin Bieber just can't seem to catch a break. The 20-year-old pop star was accused of attempted robbery in Los Angeles for an ...
-
With the news that British R&B star and tabloid target Amy Winehouse has died from as yet undisclosed causes, two things are clear: the ...
-
When Tiki Barber told HBO that he was returning to football because he "needed the game," and because he "needed to prove to ...
0 comments:
Post a Comment