Moon lander prototype crashes

[Swift]

From CNN.com

An unmanned moon lander under development crashed and blew up during an engine test Thursday afternoon at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the space agency reported.

There were no injuries in the failed test of the lander, dubbed "Morpheus." The craft had gone through several previous exercises in which it was hung from a crane, but Thursday was to have been its first free flight.

Instead, the prototype rose a short distance, rolled over and slammed into the ground. The craft caught fire immediately and exploded about 30 seconds later.

"The vehicle itself is lost," Jon Olansen, the Morpheus project manager, told reporters. "But we are working currently on gathering more data and information to understand what occurred in the test and how we can learn from it and move forward."

I thought the next bit is exactly true:

In a written statement, NASA said failure is "part of the development process for any complex spaceflight hardware," and designers will learn from whatever caused Thursday's crash.

[Gemini]

I watched it live yesterday. It was painful to watch, but at least it was unmanned.

[Daggerstab]

Here is a longer video, showing the tank explosions and the eventual arrival of the fire-fighters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hvlG2JtMts

Pet peeve: I might have read too many fantasy novels, but "unmanned" sounds to me like they are sending eunuchs in space. What's wrong with "robotic" or "automatic"?

[Ara Pacis]

Here is a longer video, showing the tank explosions and the eventual arrival of the fire-fighters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hvlG2JtMts

Pet peeve: I might have read too many fantasy novels, but "unmanned" sounds to me like they are sending eunuchs in space. What's wrong with "robotic" or "automatic"?

There is man-rating and other than man-rated for space vehicles. We don't have a robot-rated category.

[Romanus]

"There's a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path..."

[slang]

Oh dear, going from past experiences, this means that when the real article does land on the moon, this is proof that it must be faked.

[Trebuchet]

Here is a longer video, showing the tank explosions and the eventual arrival of the fire-fighters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hvlG2JtMts

Pet peeve: I might have read too many fantasy novels, but "unmanned" sounds to me like they are sending eunuchs in space. What's wrong with "robotic" or "automatic"?

Un-humanned?

[novaderrik]

Oh dear, going from past experiences, this means that when the real article does land on the moon, this is proof that it must be faked.

it's already being used as proof that we are wasting time and money on this silly "space" stuff..
you know, because people are starving on earth and stuff..

[Nicolas]

Fill me in...what mission are they planning to use this lander for? 450kg payload to the moon seems like a bit low for delivering a manned return vehicle.

About the crash: good thing it crashes now, so that its cause can be designed out of it by the time it really matters.