Cosmos 1 a step closer to launch ...

publiusr: Haven't you heard about the big Boeing shakedown that's been going on over the past few weeks? Seems that several of the top AF brass were negotiating military contracts and civilian job offers at the same time.

Not a surprise--I have guessed that was the case. Druyen could not have been the only rotton apple in that Barrel. I bet that my #1 enemy--Air Farce Chief of Staff John Jumper--is in on the take. He mentioned in Space News that, when it came to a program that needed to be executed by either air or space--he would choose aircraft every time.

This puts him on the same level as all those Navy dullards who had no problems with aviation--as long as all it meant were a few floatplanes on the back porch of a battleship--of course. But if you do a Billy Mitchell--you get court-marshalled--or in the case of Pete Worden and Lance Lord--you just get marginalized so as to not cause a stink when you advocate space.

I wrote a two-part Space Daily piece called "Is the Air Force The Enemy Of Space?" and "A Leader Out Of Time Speaks: The Legacy Of General J.B. Medaris" a couple of years ago. I named names there--and Simon pulled it down pretty quick.

One of my contacts in the Pentagon--a Marine civil service aide who was helping "Buck' Bedard call for a Marine-Space concept called SUSTAIN (like Medaris' troop rockets)--said that my article raised quite a stir among the brass, in that I called for the resignation of Jumper and other obstructionists. The damage had been done. Around this time evidence of what Boeing had done to Lockheed and Darleen Druyen leaked out. It seems a lot of people were dis-satisfied with what was going on.

The Air Force is largely a pilot's union, you see. You have to be a pilot to get anywhere--and some of the space and logistical people got tired of staying in their closets like they were told.

They finally got a belly full of the fighter jocks and the Buff-driving, Strangelove diving, General Curtis "Gee Governor Wallace--is there room up under that sheet for me too?" LeMay types---and finked them out.

That's the scuttlebutt.

Warning : Thread Alignment Correction in Progress ... stand clear ...

A faint hope that Cosmos 1 still lives ...

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050701_cosmos_mystery.html

... although even if it did make it to low orbit it seems that it aint phoning home.

DKH

"I canno' keep 'er goin' at this ra' much longer, Cap'n! She'll shake 'erse'f apar'!"

I sincerely hope they get a second chance. It's too interesting (and possibly productive) a project to just disappear like that.

I don't know as I believe that...even if true...the thing would be in such a low orbit that--if the sail were deployed improperly and set the craft to spinning---the sail is effectively a drag-brake and will de-orbit soon.

My guess is that it is already covered with kelp--and has been.

Here is the "final" report on the launch failure.
http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/update_20050720.html
In spite of this, the planetary society team still thinks it may have achieved a very low orbit, but I think they are kidding themselves. Even it if had, it probably already reentered.

The Planetary Society are talking about launching another solar sail by the end of 2006, you've got to give them 10 out of 10 for effort.

http://aviationnow.ecnext.com/free-scri ... =PLAN07255