tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post1957961171928071092..comments2024-03-28T08:06:43.198-04:00Comments on The Silicon Graybeard: Another Startup Rocket and Launch Company Just Misses a DARPA Challenge SiGraybeardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-22096114131488202382020-03-07T11:22:51.271-05:002020-03-07T11:22:51.271-05:00Absolutely. Really, everything about Astra calls ...Absolutely. Really, everything about Astra calls for respect. <br /><br />I don't know if other readers have thought of this, but the main reason for long countdowns is to go through the performance of the systems on the vehicle and payload. The most important reason is that the go/no-go criteria are set in advance. When something is a little off, like they had, and there's millions of dollars in costs to postponing the flight, that's a lot of pressure to shrug it off. There's a lot of pressure to say something like, "we had some bad readings, but they were erratic; it's just a bad wire to the sensor". Having those hard decisions agreed to for everything they could think of helps them decide to scrub. <br /><br />There's an observation from flight instructors that a lot of private pilots face the decision of whether they should land or keep going. Many of them choose the wrong one and never get to make another decision. <br />SiGraybeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00280583031339062059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1592992209402300549.post-74039082573152035902020-03-06T23:13:04.537-05:002020-03-06T23:13:04.537-05:00I'm gratified to see that integrity overruled ...I'm gratified to see that integrity overruled greed.LLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05538854359365988863noreply@blogger.com