Cab,
My point is that these issues should have been addressed and resolved long ago. In fact, they should have been addressed before any public statements were put out regarding the timing and location of the launch. If that was done, they would not have put themselves in the position of looking ridiculous; which is how they looked when THEY announced the following (from their letter to shareholders):
The original plan called for the launch to happen at our facilities, but issues with the FAA and the concerns of such a large, unmanned airship going up in controlled airspace would delay our launch for several months. Therefore, we have been in talks with the Air Force and NASA and now plan to launch the airship from Edwards Air Force Base north of Los Angeles. We still have one issue, which is how to get the airship from our production facility to Edwards AFB through controlled airspace. We have consulted officials and believe the best way is to place a temporary gondola that would house a single pilot to fly the airship to Edwards. Once at Edwards, the gondola would be removed and the airship would be launched unmanned from Edwards in military controlled airspace.
