The da Vinci Project has postponed its planned October 2 launch for "several weeks", citing inability to obtain carbon-fiber winding filament for their motor casing. Waitaminnit, it's days before their scheduled launch date and they haven't started winding their motor casing yet?
"We have everything we need to fly except the parts," says company spokeswoman Una McAvoy.
Yeah, and I have everything I need to make an X-Prize attempt myself, except a spaceship.
She dismisses reports that the Canadian government had yet to approve a launch from Kindersley, Saskatchewan, saying the project had filed all the necessary documents and secured insurance for the flight.
That's not what the Canadian Government says:
But a spokesperson at the government agency Transport Canada said on Friday that the launch had in fact not yet been authorised because the agency had not received all the required paperwork.
Even if Scaled Composites -- which now looks to have a clear shot with no real competition -- fails in their X-Prize attempt, da Vinci must make their two qualifying flights by midnight December 31 to secure the X-Prize. If they still don't even have a motor casing, I have considerable skepticism that they can do it unless they plan to fly it without a static test, and if they're flying it without a static test, I sure as hell don't want to be on board.
( In Other Science-related News... )
