Planetary Resources set for launch TODAY!

[Elthy]

Well, that went realy bad...

[Scotius]

I'm sure satellite was insured. Question is: how soon a replacement can be made and launched.

[SpaceXray]

I'm sure satellite was insured. Question is: how soon a replacement can be made and launched.

1. No insurance

2. It was a student project which they spent more than a year prepping. It won't be replaced.

[Mazon Del]

Do you have confirmation on the lack of insurance? Reports I've seen only say "The payload was partially insured." but they don't really specify which part was.

[Nibb31]

I suspect that the Antares and Cygnus were insured, but the secondary payloads weren't. Things like the Arkyd and cubesats are rarely insured because they are cheap and experimental in nature.

[PakledHostage]

Launch was scrubbed because of some idiot in a boat.

I am not sure that the crew of the sailboat was entirely at fault. Looking at the nautical charts for the Atlantic coast off Wallops Island, the exclusion zone is identified as "Danger Zone 334.130". The US federal regulations pertaining to that exclusion zone include the following requirement:

(2) In advance of scheduled launch operations which, in the opinion of the enforcing agency, may be dangerous to persons and watercraft, appropriate warnings will be issued to navigation interests through official government and civilian channels or in such other manner as the District Engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, may direct. Such warnings will specify the location, time, and duration of operations, and give other pertinent information as may be required in the interests of safety. Announcement of area of closure will appear in the weekly “Notice to Mariners.â€Â

I could not find any announcement of a closure in the weekly Notice to Mariners for US Fifth District (which includes Virginia), either in this week's or last week's publication. I don't know if they were announcing the closure of Danger Zone 334.130 on one of the VTS or weather frequencies (and I have no reason to believe that they weren't), but the exclusion zone extends out to 35 NM from the coast and nobody would be able to see the visual signals from that far out (the reports I've read say that the sailboat may have been as much as 40 NM off the coast).

If someone has more information that proves that the guy was "obviously an idiot" then go ahead and post it. In the absence of such information, I don't think it is fair to point the finger of blame entirely at the sailors.