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posted by hubie on Tuesday October 04 2022, @12:57AM   Printer-friendly

After Ian caused the latest delay for the moon mission, NASA puts a November takeoff on the calendar:

NASA's Artemis I moon mission launch, stalled by Hurricane Ian, has a new target for takeoff. The launch window for step one of NASA's bold plan to return humans to the lunar surface now opens Nov. 12 and closes Nov. 27, the space agency said Friday.

[...] The hurricane made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, bringing with it a catastrophic storm surge, winds and flooding that left dozens of people dead, caused widespread power outages and ripped buildings from their foundations. Hurricane Ian is "likely to rank among the worst in the nation's history," US President Joe Biden said on Friday, adding that it will take "months, years, to rebuild."

Initial inspections Friday to assess potential impacts of the devastating storm to Artemis I flight hardware showed no damage, NASA said. "Facilities are in good shape with only minor water intrusion identified in a few locations," the agency said in a statement.

Next up, teams will complete post-storm recovery operations, which will include further inspections and retests of the flight termination system before a more specific launch date can be set. The new November launch window, NASA said, will also give Kennedy employees time to address what their families and homes need post-storm.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday October 04 2022, @01:18AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday October 04 2022, @01:18AM (#1274798) Journal

    SLS: there was an attempt #...5?, Stardate Mid-November. SpaceX might attempt an orbital Starship launch in November. That's an opportunity they can't resist.

    https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starship-orbital-launch-date-elon-musk-2022/ [teslarati.com]
    https://www.universetoday.com/157736/musk-suggests-that-starship-will-probably-make-an-orbital-flight-in-november/ [universetoday.com]

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Some call me Tim on Tuesday October 04 2022, @02:17AM (5 children)

    by Some call me Tim (5819) on Tuesday October 04 2022, @02:17AM (#1274803)

    Take this with a huge block of salt, but I've heard rumblings from friends on the space coast that some of the engineers are worried things won't go as planned. I'm not putting much faith in these things I've heard, but there they are. Personally, I hope this thing works just because of the huge amount of money that's been dumped into it but you can't discount the delays being more than an excuse to milk just a few more million out of the cost plus contracts. Call me a cynic, but I've worked for Boeing and the politics over product is what caused me to leave. Fingers and toes crossed..

    --
    Questioning science is how you do science!
    • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday October 04 2022, @04:35AM

      by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday October 04 2022, @04:35AM (#1274818)

      I'm on team Wickwick. This thing needs to die in fire.

      --
      The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
    • (Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday October 04 2022, @05:24AM (1 child)

      by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 04 2022, @05:24AM (#1274824) Journal

      My understanding, and I don't have a source for this, is that the boosters have a use-by date of 12 months after assembly and assembly finished late November of last year.

      If that's right, and again I don't have a source other than a half-remembered internet article, then that's a lot of pressure to hold this date. I'm sure they can get a waiver to launch them late, but that's not a variable you want on the first flight of a multi-billion boondoggle.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04 2022, @01:12PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 04 2022, @01:12PM (#1274868)

        I read in one of the delay stories a couple weeks ago that there also might be some concerns with it sitting assembled for too long and long-term issues with the o-ring seals and what a huge delay it would be if they had to take it apart and re-do them.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday October 04 2022, @06:02AM

      by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday October 04 2022, @06:02AM (#1274831)

      Honestly I'm torn.

      We have indeed invested a huge amount of money in the thing, and it would be good to have a backup for heavy lift missions if (when) Starship development is delayed. We want the people planning missions today to be confident that *something* will be available with super heavy lift capacity when the time comes to launch after years of enormous development expense. Having to pay $1-2B to launch would suck, but not nearly as much as having to postpone the launch of your completed space station module or prototype asteroid mining rig for who knows how long because nobody has a big enough rocket at any price.

      On the other hand, the SLS is such a pork project that it'll be hard to get rid of no matter how clearly second-rate a choice it is. Having the launch end in a catastrophic fireball and yet more interminable delays would make it that much harder to argue for continuing to throw good money after bad.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 04 2022, @12:08PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday October 04 2022, @12:08PM (#1274863) Journal

      It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess that a single-use rocket that has experienced technical issues repeatedly up until now could end up failing badly on its frist launch.

      I'm in the "let it blow up on the pad" camp. Given the planned 1.5 year gap between the first and second launches, and that it's supposed to be crewed next time around, a failure could help lead to cancellation of the program. Starship reaching orbit in November would be the cherry on top.

      Things probably won't go the way I want them to. After all, it's persisted for over a decade, and the root cause of this pork feast is not solved.

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