FlishFun.com

Sad breaking news… snagged this from Neowin.net:

SpaceX Launch of Falcon 1 Suffers an Anomaly During Launch

At 11:36 pm EDT August 2, 2008 the Falcon 1 lost contact with the base in Hawthorn, California.

After aborting the launch at .5 seconds, the counter was reset to 11 minutes and launch countdown was reinitiated. At one minute cheers from the staff began and finally the Falcon 1 blasted off.

Unfortunately after T+140s when the vehicle switched to inertial guidance mode at an altitude of 35 km, all contact was lost. Staff at SpaceX stated that an anomaly occurred and immediately cut feed to the webcast.

The Falcon 1 was carrying the Trailblazer, two CubeSats for the Air Force and MDA and unfortunately also carried the remains of astronaut Gordon Cooper and the actor James Doohan from Star Trek.

More updates to come as information is available.

That really stinks.  From Space.com:

0355 GMT (11:55 p.m. EDT)

No further information is available from SpaceX at this time.

To recap, the third flight of the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket began at 11:34 p.m. EDT (0334 GMT) today from Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll of the Central Pacific Ocean.

An initial countdown experienced a shutdown of the main engine moments before liftoff due to a propulsion system perimeter being slightly out of limits, SpaceX said. But the launch team was able to resolve the issue quickly. Another countdown was started and the rocket lifted off just 34 minutes later.

Climbing skyward on the power of its kerosene-fueled Merlin 1C engine, the rocket was headed for orbit to deploy the U.S. military’s Trailblazer satellite as part of the Operationally Responsive Space effort and NASA’s PharmaSat Risk Evaluation spacecraft and the NanoSail-D solar sail payload.

A video camera mounted on the rocket appeared to show some oscillations during the ascent. Whether that was normal or a sign of trouble is not yet clear.

About two minutes, 20 seconds into the ascent, the video broadcast provided by SpaceX was abruptly terminated. A company spokesperson then said there had been “an anomaly” with the launch vehicle.

“We are hearing from the launch control center that there has been an anomaly on the vehicle,” said Max Vozoff, a mission manager at SpaceX. “We don’t have any information about what that anomaly is at this time. We will, of course, be doing an assessment of the situation and providing information as soon as it becomes available.”

Some more sources…. SpaceX.com Launce Updates | Kwajalein Atoll and Rockets

To quote the brother of the CEO:

We have two more Falcon 1’s right behind this one, no matter what happened.

Let’s hope all goes well next time around…. this is gonna turn out to be a very expensive anomaly, methinks.

Update… here’s a picture right before the feed was cut and the anomaly was detected:

Sad, sad stuff.

Jess and I got semi-interviewed today on a Podcast, and you can check it out/listen below:

Jason & Jessica on the “Featuring Who?” Podcast

Some of the things that we discussed:

1. How Jess and I found Neowin (a forum we belong to) and how we became staff.
2. Our computer setups.
3. Discussion about Virtual Machines (Sun xVM VirtualBox 1.6.4, specifically).
4. Microsoft’s Mohave Experiment backfiring
5. Travelers’ Laptops May be Detained At the Border

It’s a fun little listen… I feel like a huge nerd, but what else is new?  Enjoy!

I don’t know about you, but I just can’t get enough of the wonderful shiny happy things that marketing people like to toss at us each and every day.  As someone who has worked with a few marketing people, I can say it blows my mind sometimes when I hear ideas they toss out.  So where am I going with this?  Well, my brother tossed me this video today:

What if a major corporation designed the stop sign?

As hilarious as it sounds, coming from the standpoint of someone who has done designs for companies, this is spot on.  If that wasn’t enough for ya… here are a couple more:

What if Microsoft designed the iPod packaging?

Truth in Advertising

Just great stuff, folks.

These are my daily “Good to Know” links for 07/31/08 … please enjoy:

Attack Canada! | The Beacon

War Plan Red envisioned primarily U.S. attacks on and occupation of various Canadian cities, including Halifax (to be subjected to a poison-gas first strike), Quebec City, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Victoria.

Who Built the Pyramids? | Harvard Magazine

Egyptologist Mark Lehner, an associate of Harvard’s Semitic Museum, is beginning to fashion an answer. He has found the city of the pyramid builders. They were not slaves.

Burger King uses Spider-man ad for Dark Knight burger | Den of Geek

Burger King’s got a new burger out, inspired by The Dark Knight. Except last summer, it was inspired by Spider-man 3. What’s going on? Marketing is just getting lazy now.

Baby’s First Internet | The Morning News

The best “book” out there on how to teach your children how to use the internet!

Canada Defiles an Astronomical Treasure | Fanboy

That man you see in the photograph above is an international treasure. Under that rejected humble facade is none other than Charles Thomas Bolton who will one day be seen as one of the great astronomers of all time.

Halo 3’s ‘Enemies KIA’ Body Count Officially Passes Earth’s Population | OhGizmo!

The game’s official ‘Enemies KIA’ body count surpassed the Earth’s population sometime late on June 20 or early on June 21. At that point the Halo 3 Campaign Kill Count numbered 6,719,996,560, while the estimated world population was 6,705,066,871

IE 8 Beta 2 out by September 2008 | The Industry Standard

This is a prediction that Microsoft will meet or beat that self-assigned deadline and will publicly release IE 8 beta 2 on or before August 31st, 2008.

This.Film.Is.Not.Yet.Rated. | Google Video

This Film Is Not Yet Rated is an independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt.

Army Shoots Live Pigs, PETA Squeals | ABC News

Army to Shoot Live Pigs in Hawaii in Trauma Training Drill for Soldiers Heading to Iraq. The Army says it’s critical to saving the lives of wounded soldiers. Animal-rights activists call the training cruel and outdated.

Scientists find why we need to re-read a page | Telegraph

Scientists have discovered why people sometimes need to re-read a page. According to a study the brain needs a specific chemical in order to concentrate properly.

Spore Creatures Now Outnumber Known Earth Species | Slashdot

As of a week ago, the number of creatures in the “Spore” database exceeded the number of known species on Earth. They are created using ‘Creature Creator,’ which is available in a free (with limited parts) or paid download at the Spore website.

John Wiley Price: “I don’t even know what blog means” | Grits for Breakfast

As far as an elected official in 2007 declaring he doesn’t know what the word “blog” means - Good God! I don’t know where to begin.

‘Shawshank’ in a Minute | Radar Online

The Shawshank Redemption in one minute… rapped. It’s awesome, trust me on this!

S.F. officials locked out of computer network | San Francisco Chronicle

A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Francisco’s new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.

Zombie Garden Gnome | Gizmodo

Design Toscano wants you to “expect the extraordinary from your home and garden,” and that includes the walking dead. Take this 13-lb. resin undead garden zombie, for example.

Come back for more links tomorrow!!