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Orion splashes down after first, 2-orbit test flight
(CNN) -- The new type of spacecraft that NASA hopes will take astronauts to Mars has passed its first test above Earth.
NASA's Orion capsule -- part of America's bid to take crews beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo missions -- splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday morning after a nearly 4½-hour, two-orbit, uncrewed test flight.
The cone-shaped craft, slowed by a series of parachutes, settled onto the water at 8:29 a.m. PT about 600 miles southwest of San Diego.
"America has driven a golden spike as it crosses a bridge into the future," a NASA announcer said as the capsule bobbed on the ocean's surface during the agency's TV broadcast of the event.
The flight took Orion farther from Earth than any craft designed for human flight has been since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972 -- a confidence builder for a program that NASA hopes will take its first human crew into space in 2021.
Orion, a crew module designed to carry up to six astronauts, soared into the Florida sky at 7:05 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. The assembly shed its boosters before the rocket's second stage lifted Orion into low-Earth orbit in minutes.
"The launch itself (was) just a blast," NASA Orion program manager Mark Geyer quipped on NASA TV shortly after liftoff, "as you see how well the rocket did. It was exciting to see."
Then, two hours later, a milestone: The second stage lifted Orion higher for its second orbit, about 3,600 miles above Earth, or 15 times higher than the International Space Station.
After the splashdown, crews from two Navy recovery ships were working to collect the craft.
It was a crucial test for the capsule, whose flight and re-entry abilities NASA wants to prove before it carries astronauts.
NASA hopes Orion will usher in a new era: Eventual human exploration of space beyond the moon.
While private space companies like SpaceX are expected to take over the space shuttles' old job of ferrying astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit, NASA wants Orion capsules to take humans farther out.
"We haven't had this feeling in a while, since the end of the shuttle program," Mike Sarafin, Orion flight director at Johnson Space Center, said in a preflight briefing on Wednesday.
The Orion crew module, which looks like a throwback to the Apollo era but it is roomier, is designed to go far beyond the moon.
One of Orion's tasks, once fully functional, might be to send astronauts to an asteroid -- perhaps one that NASA would first robotically redirect to orbit around the moon. NASA says it hopes that Orion, pushed by a more powerful rocket system under development, will send astronauts to an asteroid in the 2020s.
NASA hopes Orion later will send astronauts to Mars' moons, and eventually -- maybe in the 2030s -- to Mars itself.
When it becomes fully operational, Orion's crew module will be able to carry four people on a 21-day mission into deep space, or six astronauts for shorter missions. By comparison, the Apollo crew modules held three astronauts and were in space for six to 12 days. Orion's crew module is 16.5 feet in diameter and Apollo was 12.8 feet in diameter, NASA said.
Though Orion's first flight didn't have people on it, it didn't go up empty. It carried the names of more than a million people packed on a dime-sized microchip.
"Sesame Street" sent up some mementos to inspire students about spaceflight, including Cookie Monster's cookie and Ernie's rubber ducky.
Also aboard: an oxygen hose from an Apollo 11 lunar spacesuit and a small sample of lunar soil. A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil from the Denver Science Museum made the trip, and lockers were filled with flags, coins, patches, poetry and music.
Friday's launch came a day after NASA scrubbed its first attempt because of a failure of some valves in the boosters to close. Those valves, which allow fuel to flow into the boosters before launch, are supposed to close just before liftoff.
SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/05/tech/innovation/nasa-orion-launch/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
NASA's Orion capsule -- part of America's bid to take crews beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo missions -- splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday morning after a nearly 4½-hour, two-orbit, uncrewed test flight.
The cone-shaped craft, slowed by a series of parachutes, settled onto the water at 8:29 a.m. PT about 600 miles southwest of San Diego.
"America has driven a golden spike as it crosses a bridge into the future," a NASA announcer said as the capsule bobbed on the ocean's surface during the agency's TV broadcast of the event.
The flight took Orion farther from Earth than any craft designed for human flight has been since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972 -- a confidence builder for a program that NASA hopes will take its first human crew into space in 2021.
Orion, a crew module designed to carry up to six astronauts, soared into the Florida sky at 7:05 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. The assembly shed its boosters before the rocket's second stage lifted Orion into low-Earth orbit in minutes.
"The launch itself (was) just a blast," NASA Orion program manager Mark Geyer quipped on NASA TV shortly after liftoff, "as you see how well the rocket did. It was exciting to see."
Then, two hours later, a milestone: The second stage lifted Orion higher for its second orbit, about 3,600 miles above Earth, or 15 times higher than the International Space Station.
After the splashdown, crews from two Navy recovery ships were working to collect the craft.
It was a crucial test for the capsule, whose flight and re-entry abilities NASA wants to prove before it carries astronauts.
NASA hopes Orion will usher in a new era: Eventual human exploration of space beyond the moon.
While private space companies like SpaceX are expected to take over the space shuttles' old job of ferrying astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit, NASA wants Orion capsules to take humans farther out.
"We haven't had this feeling in a while, since the end of the shuttle program," Mike Sarafin, Orion flight director at Johnson Space Center, said in a preflight briefing on Wednesday.
The Orion crew module, which looks like a throwback to the Apollo era but it is roomier, is designed to go far beyond the moon.
One of Orion's tasks, once fully functional, might be to send astronauts to an asteroid -- perhaps one that NASA would first robotically redirect to orbit around the moon. NASA says it hopes that Orion, pushed by a more powerful rocket system under development, will send astronauts to an asteroid in the 2020s.
NASA hopes Orion later will send astronauts to Mars' moons, and eventually -- maybe in the 2030s -- to Mars itself.
When it becomes fully operational, Orion's crew module will be able to carry four people on a 21-day mission into deep space, or six astronauts for shorter missions. By comparison, the Apollo crew modules held three astronauts and were in space for six to 12 days. Orion's crew module is 16.5 feet in diameter and Apollo was 12.8 feet in diameter, NASA said.
Though Orion's first flight didn't have people on it, it didn't go up empty. It carried the names of more than a million people packed on a dime-sized microchip.
"Sesame Street" sent up some mementos to inspire students about spaceflight, including Cookie Monster's cookie and Ernie's rubber ducky.
Also aboard: an oxygen hose from an Apollo 11 lunar spacesuit and a small sample of lunar soil. A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil from the Denver Science Museum made the trip, and lockers were filled with flags, coins, patches, poetry and music.
Friday's launch came a day after NASA scrubbed its first attempt because of a failure of some valves in the boosters to close. Those valves, which allow fuel to flow into the boosters before launch, are supposed to close just before liftoff.
SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/05/tech/innovation/nasa-orion-launch/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Sorry, that should have read, "To which I say "Bravo for them." since international patent law is currently written so that researchers aren't allowed to even research cures on certain diseases without paying royalties to anyone who has cloned a virus and 'owns' its genome, and needs to be rewritten.
Interesting article on how one pharm co. is going to sell its $1,000/pill wonder drug for 1% of this price in India in an effort to keep hold of this market. This is an admission that India and China can reverse engineer anything they can get their hands and ignore international patent law. Which I say "Bravo for them, since international patent law needs to be rewritten so that researchers aren't allowed to even research cures on certain diseases without paying royalties to anyone who has cloned a virus and 'owns' its genome.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/business/international/maker-of-hepatitis-c-drug-strikes-deal-on-generics-for-poor-countries.html?
"......In the United States, Sovaldi costs $1,000 a pill, or $84,000 for a typical 12-week course of treatment. It is likely to be sold for less than $1,800 for a 24-week course of treatment in India, where people are generally infected with a different form of the virus and treatment regimens can take twice as long.
Gilead plans to introduce the drug in India for about $10 a pill — 1 percent of the price in the United States, Gregg H. Alton, Gilead’s executive vice president, said at a news conference. That is likely to force the seven Indian generics companies to price their pills even lower, said Bhavesh B. Shah, director of international marketing at Hetero Drugs Limited, one of Gilead’s Indian partners........"
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/business/international/maker-of-hepatitis-c-drug-strikes-deal-on-generics-for-poor-countries.html?
"......In the United States, Sovaldi costs $1,000 a pill, or $84,000 for a typical 12-week course of treatment. It is likely to be sold for less than $1,800 for a 24-week course of treatment in India, where people are generally infected with a different form of the virus and treatment regimens can take twice as long.
Gilead plans to introduce the drug in India for about $10 a pill — 1 percent of the price in the United States, Gregg H. Alton, Gilead’s executive vice president, said at a news conference. That is likely to force the seven Indian generics companies to price their pills even lower, said Bhavesh B. Shah, director of international marketing at Hetero Drugs Limited, one of Gilead’s Indian partners........"
" But it's still the highest per capita spending in the world, at $2.9 trillion for 2013, or $9,255 per person. "
That's terrific news. Rates and premiums are set to go up for a lot of folks, and still.... the root of the problem isn't being addressed. Pharma has a choke on anyone needing medicine and medical devices and procedures are not strictly regulated. The cost of any procedure or device can vary widely in a big city with numerous hospitals.
So.... we raise premiums....
That's terrific news. Rates and premiums are set to go up for a lot of folks, and still.... the root of the problem isn't being addressed. Pharma has a choke on anyone needing medicine and medical devices and procedures are not strictly regulated. The cost of any procedure or device can vary widely in a big city with numerous hospitals.
So.... we raise premiums....
Oh yeah. This was supposed to be about sticking el' in a time capsule.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7RW0eZtDw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7RW0eZtDw
Growth in U.S. Health Spending the Lowest On Record
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/growth-u-s-health-spending-lowest-record-n260846
"U.S. healthcare spending grew at the lowest rate ever recorded last year, in defiance of predictions that it would surge this year with Obamacare, experts said Wednesday. But it's still the highest per capita spending in the world, at $2.9 trillion for 2013, or $9,255 per person.
The growth rate was 3.6 percent, the actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported. It's a continuation of a five-year trend and in line with the general slow economic recovery, they report in the journal Health Affairs. But health spending still accounts for more than 17 percent of the gross domestic product.
"The key question is whether health spending growth will accelerate once economic conditions improve significantly," said Micah Hartman, a statistician in the Office of the Actuary at CMS, who led the team of analysts. "Historical evidence suggests it will."
Spending grew just slightly in all areas of health care, but growth was slow for private health insurance, where premiums went up by just 2.8 percent; the Medicare federal health program, where spending grew by 3.4 percent; and hospital spending at 4.3 percent.
American consumers also spent only a little more, with out-of-pocket spending up just 3.2 percent.
The same team predicted last year that growth would pick up in 2014, to 6 percent, in large part because of more Medicaid spending under the 2010 Affordable Care Act and as millions signed up for health insurance on the new exchanges. That didn't happen.
Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, says there's growing evidence that policies are driving down costs. "With each passing year, it becomes increasingly difficult to explain why and how the 2007-2009 recession could still be exerting significant downward pressure on health care spending growth and, thus, increasingly implausible that the recession is the main explanation for that slow growth," he wrote in a blog post."
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/growth-u-s-health-spending-lowest-record-n260846
"U.S. healthcare spending grew at the lowest rate ever recorded last year, in defiance of predictions that it would surge this year with Obamacare, experts said Wednesday. But it's still the highest per capita spending in the world, at $2.9 trillion for 2013, or $9,255 per person.
The growth rate was 3.6 percent, the actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported. It's a continuation of a five-year trend and in line with the general slow economic recovery, they report in the journal Health Affairs. But health spending still accounts for more than 17 percent of the gross domestic product.
"The key question is whether health spending growth will accelerate once economic conditions improve significantly," said Micah Hartman, a statistician in the Office of the Actuary at CMS, who led the team of analysts. "Historical evidence suggests it will."
Spending grew just slightly in all areas of health care, but growth was slow for private health insurance, where premiums went up by just 2.8 percent; the Medicare federal health program, where spending grew by 3.4 percent; and hospital spending at 4.3 percent.
American consumers also spent only a little more, with out-of-pocket spending up just 3.2 percent.
The same team predicted last year that growth would pick up in 2014, to 6 percent, in large part because of more Medicaid spending under the 2010 Affordable Care Act and as millions signed up for health insurance on the new exchanges. That didn't happen.
Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, says there's growing evidence that policies are driving down costs. "With each passing year, it becomes increasingly difficult to explain why and how the 2007-2009 recession could still be exerting significant downward pressure on health care spending growth and, thus, increasingly implausible that the recession is the main explanation for that slow growth," he wrote in a blog post."
Never fear, Obama is here!
How'd you get "free" obamacare? I even have to pay for my Medicare, "plus" my supplement... Oh yeah, I forgot -- they robbed Medicare to pay for obamacare... guess I should have kept working so I could afford the cost, shouldn't I?
I got my free obamacare!
Crybabies!
Healthcare cost is going up?
should have read, what it will cost, how it will be financed and what it will cover (which is looking like an 80% gold plan)
It's rolling around to the time when those in Vt will find out what the cost and "single payer" healthcare is going to cost.
opening volley
"EXCLUSIVE: SINGLE PAYER FINANCING LIKELY TO START WITH 8 PERCENT PAYROLL TAX"
http://vtdigger.org/2014/12/04/single-payer-financing-likely-start-8-percent-payroll-tax/
opening volley
"EXCLUSIVE: SINGLE PAYER FINANCING LIKELY TO START WITH 8 PERCENT PAYROLL TAX"
http://vtdigger.org/2014/12/04/single-payer-financing-likely-start-8-percent-payroll-tax/
Compared to interstellar travel at near light-speed... universal healthcare is mundane.
And in 200 years, universal healthcare won't be an issue.
As usual, you missed the point completely.
And in 200 years, universal healthcare won't be an issue.
As usual, you missed the point completely.
And healthcare for all?
Mundane? I suspect you'd feel a lot differently if you were dying of a disease because you didn't have healthcare.....and you're family was bankrupt because of it. Then healthcare for all wouldn't seem so mundane.
Mundane? I suspect you'd feel a lot differently if you were dying of a disease because you didn't have healthcare.....and you're family was bankrupt because of it. Then healthcare for all wouldn't seem so mundane.
I hope we stay the course. Man is built/designed (has evolved) to explore. It's what "we" do, as a species. We discover. We explore. We create. We invent. We ponder.
This isn't exactly a "Do you remember where you were when X-Y-Z happened?" moment (ie: Challenger explosion, 9/11, Kennedy assassination, OJ Simpson verdict read, etc), but I will FOR SURE remember this moment for the rest of my life.
We're headed to the stars (Moon first, then Mars, then... who knows), but we've gotta start somewhere, and this is a MASSIVE milestone.
I wish I could go to sleep and not wake up for 200 years. I'd like to see where we are, space-travel'wise, in 200-250 years. Ion propulsion engines? Artificial gravity of some type? Lunar settlements? Terra forming of Mars?
Just 111 years ago, if you'd told someone that we'd have little vehicles roaming around MARS taking samples and pictures, and that we could put a 40 TONS aircraft in the air, or land on the moon, you'd have been laughed at.
Just think of what the NEXT 100 years will bring.
The mind boggles at the possibilities.
And we're quibbling and arguing about 5million mexican's being made legal? And healthcare for all? And a petroleum pipeline? And whatever other mundane/boring b/s the folks in DC deem important THIS week?
I just want to go to sleep.
This isn't exactly a "Do you remember where you were when X-Y-Z happened?" moment (ie: Challenger explosion, 9/11, Kennedy assassination, OJ Simpson verdict read, etc), but I will FOR SURE remember this moment for the rest of my life.
We're headed to the stars (Moon first, then Mars, then... who knows), but we've gotta start somewhere, and this is a MASSIVE milestone.
I wish I could go to sleep and not wake up for 200 years. I'd like to see where we are, space-travel'wise, in 200-250 years. Ion propulsion engines? Artificial gravity of some type? Lunar settlements? Terra forming of Mars?
Just 111 years ago, if you'd told someone that we'd have little vehicles roaming around MARS taking samples and pictures, and that we could put a 40 TONS aircraft in the air, or land on the moon, you'd have been laughed at.
Just think of what the NEXT 100 years will bring.
The mind boggles at the possibilities.
And we're quibbling and arguing about 5million mexican's being made legal? And healthcare for all? And a petroleum pipeline? And whatever other mundane/boring b/s the folks in DC deem important THIS week?
I just want to go to sleep.
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