Re: Circus Clown to NASA: Bomb Moon, NASA: Okay
Seriously - I'm having a hard time finding the thinnest sliver of a fact in that load of fantastical bunk masquerading as reportage. The LCROSS impactor is not a bomb nor a warhead, it did not contain any explosive material other than the dregs of hydrazine that didn't vent after separation, and the place any warhead would have been was where the orbiter was bolted on for launch. It was a spent Centaur upper-stage rocket: a conveniently-heavy lump of metal with a motor on the back, and it made a small hole as it crumpled on impact - no explosion, no possible effect on the moon's orbit, exosphere, geology or mood swings; merely a puff of dust. Thousands of observers watched the impact site through telescopes, and even the smallest of explosions would have been visible as a light flash. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
And Guy Laliberté is not, and has never been, a clown. Not once. Never. He has however been awarded national honors in Canada for his work outside CdS, and he was also only in space courtesy of TMA-16 (reaching ISS on Sept 30 2009), so had no involvement in the preparations for LCROSS, which began back in the spring of 2006. As part of the permissions to visit ISS, every 'tourist' has to contribute to a scientific program and assist with publicity, that is all. NASA does not take orders from clowns, unless you consider the President to be in that category.
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