{"id":324,"date":"2014-11-18T15:37:18","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T20:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/?p=324"},"modified":"2014-11-18T15:44:48","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T20:44:48","slug":"commercial-spaceflight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/18\/commercial-spaceflight\/","title":{"rendered":"Commercial Spaceflight"},"content":{"rendered":"

[symple_spacing size=”80″]<\/h4>\n
\"Virgin<\/a>
Virgin Galactic spacecraft and launcher aircraft.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the crash of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo<\/a> some of you are probably thinking that the future of commercial spaceflight does not have a very bright future. Well if you looked at the early history of manned flight in the beginning of the 20th Century there were a number of major setbacks and accidents before commercial flying became quite safe, as it is today.<\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

And if you look at the history of manned and unmanned spaceflight there have been a good number of accidents and casualties, for instance as they were developing the boosters for the Apollo program there were a number of times when they had to destroy the rocket because of a malfunction. Also the deaths of the three astronauts from a on the pad fire, due to using pure oxygen for the cabin atmosphere instead of a mixture closer to Earth\u2019s. I must of course mention the deaths of the crew and destruction of the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia<\/a> can not be overlooked. Yet the space program continues to this day, we learned from our mistakes and moved on.<\/h4>\n

If we stop working toward the goal of safe human commercial spaceflight, then we should seriously consider giving up riding in cars, trains, ships and even using bicycles because there have been people who have died due to a design defect or accident while using one of these modes of transportation.<\/h4>\n

The SpaceShipTwo accident<\/a> might have happened because of human error; it may be that a miscommunication occurred between the pilots. It looks like, for now at least, that one of the pilots released a slowdown device at a speed that was too high for it to be deployed safely causing undue strain on the spacecraft. Which lead to it breaking up and one of its pilots dying, all due to a mistaken communication or assumption on the part of one of the pilots. Of course we will have to wait for the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) to complete its investigation to know exactly what really did happen to cause SpaceShipTwo to crash.<\/h4>\n

In the mean time I and many other fervently hope that work will continue on private commercial spaceflight. And maybe someday soon it will become common place to book a spaceflight, just as we do today to fly from one place to another one. To stop progress on commercial spaceflight would be a very large mistake. I remember a saying that went like this, \u201cIf Man were meant to fly he would have been born with wings.\u201d This was said by those who believed that we humans could not soar in the air like birds and yet today we have gone faster than the speed of sound on a commercial aircraft; the British and French made Concord.<\/h4>\n

So I must say that to advance commercial space travel some will be injured or die while on the whole we will one day, all will have the privilege to fly into outer space on a commercial conveyance.<\/h4>\n

That is my opinion \u2013 Jumpin Jersey Mike<\/h6>\n