4 people have died in 2 separate Soyuz accidents.

There have been other non-fatal incidents in Soyuz. Here's just one such example:

April 19: Soyuz TMA-11 suffered a reentry mishap similar to that suffered by Soyuz 5 in 1969. The service module failed to completely separate from the reentry vehicle and caused it to face the wrong way during the early portion of aerobraking. As with Soyuz 5, the service module eventually separated and the reentry vehicle completed a rough but survivable landing. Following the Russian news agency Interfax's report, this was widely reported as life-threatening while NASA urged caution pending an investigation of the vehicle. South Korean astronaut Yi So-Yeon was hospitalized after her return to South Korea due to injuries caused by the rough return voyage in the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft. The South Korean Science Ministry said that the astronaut had a minor injury to her neck muscles and had bruised her spinal column

  I'd say SpaceX with 0 fatalities is looking pretty good by comparison.

I believe the most optimistic schedule has a manned launch sometime mid-2015. I'd guess early 2016 as the soonest we'll see a manned SpaceX launch.

It would be great to have an Orion capsule ready to launch on a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket. Unfortunately the rest of the Constellation program was so horribly over budget and behind schedule that it needed to be shut down.

Congress doesn't pass ideas, they pass laws. And we expect them to be faithfully executed.

When Kennedy made his famous "We choose to go to the moon" speech, the USA had exactly 1 successful manned spaceflight - that being Alan Shepard's 15-minute suborbital hop. SpaceX has multiple successful launches, and are working on a manned version of their Dragon spacecraft.

What Musk is doing is pointing to a finish line that will take many years to accomplish. There will likely be setbacks along the way, but like Kennedy he's setting a grand vision -- hopefully I'll see that vision realized in my lifetime.

It's completely irresponsible and foolish to speculate that the gigafactory will be built in New Mexico. The obvious location would be in Watts.

I can't believe I'm replying to this, but here goes... Mormons, or members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do not practice polygamy and have not done so for well over a century.

If you're looking for an example of a well-known religion that practices polygamy, you might want to use Islam as Muslim men are permitted to have up to four wives.

Yes, the Apollo 1 fire in January 1967.

Without that fire and the resulting redesigns and changes it is unlikely that Apollo would have been a success.

That joke was never funny.

Madonna was in The Bangles?

Listening to music while operating a motor vehicle is not a basic human right. Driving is a privilege not a right. Since we cannot differentiate between someone listening to music while driving at 75 mph down the interstate and someone watching a video on their in-dash DVD player while driving at 75 mph down the interstate, both should be disallowed. There is absolutely no reason you can't turn off your tunes for the drive, and it does not infringe on your rights one bit to tell you to keep it turned off. When you operate a vehicle you are saying to society: yes, I will play by the rules of the road. If those rules include not listening to music, then it is not "rights infringement". You tacitly agreed to it by getting behind the wheel. You can choose to take the bus or walk if you want to listen to music. This is the same reason that breathalyzers are compulsory. You have a right not to self incriminate and you have a right not to take a breathalyzer if you are in your home or walking down the street, but by getting behind the wheel and exercising the privilege of driving (that's why you need a license, after all) you tacitly agree to abide by a more restrictive set of regulations. In other words, by driving YOU consent to give up rights while you are behind the wheel.

The United States Congress is consists of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. You are correct that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed several budgets and the Democrat-controlled Senate has failed to approve a budget.

The national debt continues to grow, and will continue to grow. I'm not sure if the deficit is growing or not - Congress hasn't passed a budget in 5 years or so -- so that math is a little fuzzy. However, the deficit can shrink and the debt will continue to grow.

Let's say you make $50,000 a year. Last year you spent $70,000 and you currently have $100,000 in debt.
If you make $55,000 next year and your spending remains steady at $70,000, your deficit will shrink but your debt will grow to $115,000 (plus interest)

Astatine will be changing it's name to Ocho-Cinconium.

Then after a few mediocre years it will just be known as Chad Johnson.

RUN away! RUN away!

Does anyone know whether or not there was a range safety officer monitoring this launch? From the video, it's pretty clear early on that this booster is in trouble, and since it's unmanned it seems like it would be better to detonate the Proton before it impacts the earth.

Without knowing the procedures and capabilities it's hard to know why the flight was not terminated sooner. Any Slashdotters with knowledge of Russian launch safety protocols?