As many have already read — and watched — Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin suffered an on pad explosion yesterday — never clearing the tower.
I wish that effort no ill, but this is perhaps (along with Elon’s manifold launch / orbit failures)… a sobering lesson.
This is not any old school Estes model rocketry class. And these disasters spew toxic waste for many miles around. The race between Musk and Bezos, as to which of them will first put “commercial” boots on Mars… as we’ve said before — is largely a silly one.
There is simply very scant real reason to send humans to Barsoom — at all. The real science (almost every bit of it) may be more economically and safely done — with robotics and autonomous vehicles — and helicopters, out on Mars.
These are immutable facts. There will be no surreptitiously discovered — but to now, wholly-hidden “ruins” of a some long past sentient civilization to explore — that is an Edgar Rice Burroughs fantasy, exclusively.
Now, there may be evidence, already, in the Perseverance core samples — of past microbial life. But those tubes may be brought home with a robotic helicopter mission. Forgive me the vulgar turn of phrase, but in my opinion — this is (mostly) a pair of billionaires, in a pissing- / d!ck-waggling contest. Nothing more. Ugh.
And the failure / event has badly damaged US government / NASA launch facilities at Cape Kennedy. Damn — here’s that story, with the attending video snippet, below the pull quote:
…A New Glenn rocket exploded at Cape Canaveral during a launch pad test firing on Thursday, May 28, 2026. The U.S. Space Force said there were no injuries at the Florida space port following the incident.
The rocket was being prepared for a launch carrying a batch of satellites for Amazon’s Leo internet constellation. The satellites were not on rocket for the launch pad static fire.
The explosion at Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station caused extensive damage to the launch pad facility, toppling one of the 600-feet high lightning towers….
Dammit — guys, give it a rest. You may soon get several people killed, with this nonsense.
नमस्ते
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