Amusing that the classified DoD payloads are launched with an RD-180 engine.

OP may have been thinking of Brian, not Jesus.

My daughter and I were watching it live as well. I have no idea how much it costs, but I believe that they have to drain the LOx tank if the vehicle sits off countdown timer on the pad. That seems pretty expensive to me! I'm not even sure that they can reuse the cryogenics, it might be vented to atmosphere.

I just asked here, if you are interested:
http://space.stackexchange.com...

Thanks, Bert. I agree with you on all accounts.

I've been on both ends of the assault rifle, and my children have been through one rocket damaging our home and dozens more landing nearby. The more we "advance" technology the more we enable any particular human to hurt more and more people around them. I long for the day when we forget how to forge rifles and pack blackpowder. Let the warriors (and I say this as a reserve soldier) fight with their fists. There is no way for either side to "leave the civilians out of it" when we are fighting with weapons with a ranges measured in kilometers. If you can't look the other side in the eye, don't pull the trigger / don't throw the punch / don't push the button.

And don't be afraid to call someone a false cleric if they are using holy texts / mythology / out-of-context quotes in order to convince you to hurt somebody.

Jesus was definitely right about a lot of things. So were Muhammed and Budda and Pythagoras.

Best comment on the thread yet.

Nice veiled insult. Saving a human life is considered, as per our mythology, more important than any other commandment. We drive ambulances on the sabbath and use pig implants when that is needed to save a life. There is no "temporary" about that, it is our custom.

Some religions value the afterlife more than human life. Some religions value vague interpretations of scripture more than human life. Some politicians value religion more than human life. Jews believe in human life first, all else second.

Correct. We (Israel) used this to terrific effect in last year's operation in Gaza. It saved lives on both sides.

I've been to a Turkish spa. I think you're right, I've seen all I needed to see in the spa.

It was the February 8 attempt here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

More details here:
http://www.waaytv.com/space_al...

Diagnosis: Air Force tracking radar went down 2m30s before launch.

If you are referring to the recent delay which caused SpaceX to launch almost a week late and scrap a landing attempt due to an Air Force radar station idiot being trigger happy on the "no go" call, then I agree completely.

I think that having inmates penetration test each other is common only in American jails.

Actually, it is pretty much accepted from what I understand that the Moon had several influences on the rise and development of life on this planet, from (among others) stabilizing our spin, to moderating the seasons, deflection of large asteroids, and even to the development of optic cones in addition to rods (or rods in addition to cones, I forget which), etc.

I think that it was Asimov that pointed out that our Moon follows a fully concave path around the Sun, i.e. never travels backwards, and in his opinion that defined us (for him) as a dual-planet system.

So if the moon were located about 20% further from Earth, then you would consider the Earth-Moon system a binary system?

Hi neighbor! I've been to Aqaba though I haven't dived there. You should know that as an Israeli, I'm very happy to see Jordan building a nuclear power plant. We (humans) need _clean_ energy, even if it is more expensive than burning carbon. And anything that advances the Jordanian standard of living is good for the entire area, especially considering what is happening on Jordan's northern and eastern borders right now.