[amsat-bb] Re: Vega to launch in February

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

David:

You failed to quote the most fascinating part of the article:

> The caution is well advised. Statistics show that some two-thirds of the 
  rockets introduced in the past 20 years have had an unsuccessful first 
outing.
>
> It is for this reason that the satellites carried on the "qualification"
> flight have been given a free ride.

OK, a 66% chance that our satellite would simply blow up, but a 33% chance 
that we could get a satellite a free ride into a polar orbit. Hmmm... Don't 
we have some hardware "sitting on the shelf" that we could offer up to the 
gods of maiden launches??? Like a linear transponder instead of a 
single-channel FM transponder?

John, Amsat-NA LM #2292
W0JT

On Jan 10 2012, g0mrf at aol.com wrote:

>FYI
>
>300 x 1450km
>
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16480111
>
>
>
 "Europe has named Thursday 9 February as the day it intends to launch its 
new Vega rocket for the very first time.
>        
 The 30m-tall vehicle has been developed to take payloads up to 1.5 tonnes 
into a polar orbit, and will fly from the Kourou spaceport in French 
Guiana.
>        
 The project has been led by Italian industry and is years behind on its 
original schedule.........
>
>
>
>
>David  G0MRF
>
>
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