Archive for the &;Space&; Category
Space Travel Dangerous Even If You&;reDead
August 11, 2008
The LA Weekly is running my story on the new private space race, a battle between billionaires like Elon Muske (SpaceX), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and of course Richard Branson (Virgin everything.) Bill Gates is more focused on curing malaria around the world.
One of my points in the story is what would happen if private space travel had the same safe flight rate as NASA&;s space shuttle program. The shuttle has suffered two cataclysmic crashes in 123 flights despite NASA&;s spending $150 billion of our money. &;If the 18,000 monthly aircraft departures from LAX suffered from the same 98.4% arrival rate experienced by the Shuttle, a staggering 288 airliners a month would crash.&;
Space travel is hazardous&;even if you&;re already dead. The ashes of James Doohan (Scotty on Star Trek), fun-loving astronaut Gordon Cooper and 200 other people were destroyed last week, rather than achieving space orbit, when a SpaceX rocket crashed on takeoff.
Doohan&;s son wrote, &;While there are many complicated reasons why this is a disappointment, mine is simple: I&;d like to finish saying goodbye. Every launch attempt is like reliving his funeral. There’s a lot of pomp and ceremony, and a retelling of his deeds in life. But at the end of these funerals, something goes awry, the body doesn&;t get buried, and you know you&;re going to have to come back to do it over again.&;
Tags:bill-gates, James-Doohan, Jeff-Bezos, LA-Weekly, Michael-Goldstein, NASA, private-space, Richard-Branson, space-shuttle, SpaceX, StarTrek Posted in public-relations-disaster, Space, Television, Tribbles | 2 Comments &;