A Failure To Launch

link here to article

The global economy has deep structural problems. Some attempts were made to contain the crisis but they were not sufficient to provide the needed "escape velocity". Now we are out of fuel and it will be difficult to attain orbit.

I would add a couple of things to the aerodynamic analogy that was used to describe the problem. Ground control screwed things up by arguing over the kind of fuel to use and it decided that a lean mixture was better than the high octane stuff that was described in 1936 by an out of date theorist. We won't be able to try another launch because ground control is trying to figure out who to blame for the failure and the public has lost confidence in the space program and won't fund it. Some believe that the space craft is able to lift itself into orbit by defying the laws of gravity, which after all, are only theoretical, and are not in the constitution or described in the scriptures.