It's Rocket Science

AP reports:

The government on Wednesday awarded a California aviation company the first license for a manned suborbital rocket.

More on NASA alternatives here and here.

Comments

[Snooty American]

If'n it pisses off The Bart, I am in favor of keepin' it.

[Kirsten Tynan]

Most of the media has made the same mistake- the FAA is not licensing suborbital vehicles. It is licensing the LAUNCH of suborbital vehicles. This leads to a very different (less stringent) set of standards that must be met for a suborbital vehicle to fly. The focus is not on passenger safety, but on safety of uninvolved third parties and their property.

[Hydroman]

We could have saved billions of dollars if the complete space program was contracted to Elbert L. Rutan 25 years ago.

[nobody]

Yup. It would only have taken a $28 trillion check and an authorized signature.

[Jean Bart]

Would you please stop using the term "rocket science"; it really pisses off the aerospace engineers.

[nobody]

I prefer "particle physics."

[a pedant]

"Hey, people, this isn't aerospace engineering" just doesn't roll off the tongue as well, Jean Bart.

[a pedant]

"Hey, people, this isn't aerospace engineering" just doesn't roll off the tongue as well, Jean Bart.

[Mo]

Jean Bart,
I dunno, most of the aerospace engineers I know like saying that they are "rocket scientists." Granted, it's usually in joke form. Example, when figuring something absurdly simple/obivous that everyone else missed, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to (whatever), but in this case it did."

[a pedant]

Goddamned double post.

[Douglas Fletcher]

I knew a rocket scientist who was also a banjo player. Stanley Brothers stuff, mostly.

Just thought I'd let you know.

[dj of raleigh]

The US doesn't own space.
Why didn't they go to Mexico and light the candle?