Friday, September 19, 2008

As the World Turns

Old Ron Dittemore just can't seem to get a break. Now USA is stopping work on ARES-1 and ARES-1X when their letter contract expires. You just know they will be extracting blood to get a real contract signed before they punch a time card again. The new chief at ATK, Mr. Marchetto, knows how to build motors and cameras but probably didn't know what he was getting himself into when he left Orbital. Now he finds himself directly in the critical path between the Emperor and his ill-fated rocket-that-will-never-be-built.

It will be an interesting three+ more months indeed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I took all of my money out of the stock market and invested in springs and dead weight! Bet I will make a killing being a supplier to ATK!

Anonymous said...

I've seem big springs like that. If you drop them they go boink. Boing.

It's almost as if they're calling out Boeing! That's what big springs in a rocket is saying to me.

Anonymous said...

What would be more ironic if the ATK folks who, using the demonic forces of astronaut-adoration (The power of "Doc" compels you!!) , practically forced the "stick" on us end up killing themselves accidentally. One envisions a comatose patient blindly thrashing and accidentally pulling their own plug. The nurses to not hurry to resuscitate- they know it would be best for it to die sooner rather than later. The rest of the family does not protest since they know they couldn't afford to keep their terminal kin alive without having to sell their children for scientific experiments. Then there are those hard working cousins- Atlas and Delta- perhaps now they'll be able to go to college and help with the family business.

But they worry about fat old uncle ARES the Fifth- he can barely rise now- will he be around much longer? And Aunt Altair- she was never put together right and due to her height they worry about her stumbling on that last step. Worse- she will almost certainly lose her cool in the sun. Of course the nearly identical twins ARES US and EDS - they are beset by the same genes- they wanted to be boosters based on their size and cost but now it seems they have to be upper stages too- it's just no fair what with those million-hour engines and being big-boned.

Families are such complicated things- but you don't get to pick your relations. Or do you?

RayGun said...

Atlas(t) KT made a funny.