Pre Launch Status (Feb 2011)

COM = Cross on the moon. In late February we witnessed the last launch of Space Shuttle Discovery. It carried among other items Robonaut-2, a humanoid assistant to the International Space Station. The Shuttle undocks early March 7th for its final landing at Kennedy Space Center.

On February 8th, Business Insider headlined: “Elon Musk’s SpaceX Rocket To Carry Moon Rover To Historic Apollo 11 Site”. The effort is to win Google’s Lunar X prize by Astrobotic Technologies and students at Carnegie Mellon University. Link to the story is here.

In February Orbital Sciences failed to place into orbit a $424 million NASA satellite. A nose cone fairing did not separate thereby preventing the vehicle in reaching orbit. A similar event occurred in 2009. Orbital Sciences has a separate contract with NASA to supply Space Station, estimated to be $1.9B. Those vehicles will be Taurus-2, not Taurus XL that has been experiencing nose cone failures. Link to the story is here.

Finally, we recently were treated to this headline: “Secret Mission: Bible on the Moon”. See video and story here:  . The short version is that on Feb 5^th, 1971, Edger Mitchell took microfilm bibles to the lunar surface on Apollo 14 and brought them back to earth. That was roughly 40 years ago. In the article, the interviewer asks Ms Mersch, author of a recent book: But what is the significance of sending a bible to the moon?

Carol Mersch: Through the years the Bible has crossed many continents, many countries, many distances. And it was not unnatural, then, that the Bible be carried to another celestial body. For more information on Carol Mersch’s book, “The Apostles of Apollo,” click here: http://apostlesofapollo.com/

God Bless everyone…

Michael Clark, president Cross on the Moon.