Saturday, May 19, 2012

Pad Abort for the Dragon

Yes...Dragon still sits atop the Falcon 9 waiting for its ride to orbit after another delay.
But this time the Falcon 9 engines started before a very quick shutdown. But before you judge SpaceX or any other of the companies pioneering a new era of spaceflight, this shut down demonstrates two very important things. One, rocket science is hard and not for the easily discouraged. And two, SpaceX is doing everything right!!! Yes, they are doing it right, if not the Falcon would have left the pad today and would have suffered a destructive failure or at the very least, they would not have reached orbit...which would still be a failure. Today' engine shut down should be considered a success. The mission to launch was not successful, but the rocket & payload are still safe and ready to fly.
So don't criticize SpaceX, thank them, encourage them, and support them! They are putting it on the line for all of us by trying something hard, taking all the risk, only to share the reward with humanity...by keep space exploration moving in a forward direction.
Thank you SpaceX...and Go Dragon!!!
- Aaron
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