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from the if-at-first-you-don't-succeed-... dept.
NASA has been preparing for a wet dress rehearsal for the Artemis I rocket, but have hit several issues causing delays, the most recent being a faulty helium gas check valve. They have now announced that a modified wet dress rehearsal will start with a call to stations on April 12. This rehearsal proceeds through as an actual launch activity that scrubs at the T-10 second point. The modified test will focus on filling the core stage with cryogenic propellant, but with minimal propellant operations on the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS). Following the test, the rocket will be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building to replace the helium check valve as well as to assess the launch procedures.
NASA is streaming live video of the rocket and spacecraft on the Kennedy Newsroom YouTube channel.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Tuesday April 12 2022, @05:50AM (4 children)
...I'm not sure exactly what.
I mean, I want humans to have a sustainable space presence, but the SLS is not the way to go. A failure would amply demonstrate what a huge waste of time and resources the SLS really is.
OTOH, at least we should hope for something, however minor, to come from that waste of resources. And a failure would just be an excuse to shovel even more good money after bad.
And on the gripping hand: while I really admire what SpaceX is achieving, Starship isn't there yet, and anyway, there needs to be more than one organization that can regularly and repeatably put payloads that size into space.
tl;dr: I don't know whether to hope for failure or success...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @06:31AM (1 child)
Shut up, bradley12! This is not the rocket launch you are fantascizing about. And, besides, aren't you an ex-pat? Like, if I lump in the Poms, janrinok and FatPhil? So what, besides your conservative word, guarantees that you are actually paying your proper taxes to your home country? No accusation here, just a challenge to produce some actual skin in the game. Yes, I know you teach javascript, for great justice, but that will no longer count for much, as SoylentNews gradually weeds out the RWNJs. Sorry, bradley11, you r time has passed,
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @07:59AM
Hmm, Spam mod. Who threw that? Oh, we cannot know? Admin only level of knowledge? Ok, then why is it not rescinded? Admin level knowledge, again? So are they implying that this was an aristarchus comment, even though aristarchus is no longer allowed to log in as aristarchus, so it could not have been aristarchus, or at the very most, aristarchus posting as an AC aristarchus? But how are we normal ACs (assuming there are any of us left) to know the difference between and actual covert aristarchus post, and a merely imitation aristarchus post by some other (and cheeky) AC? Puzzling, Puzzling Evidence" [youtube.com]. You better wake up. Woke is better than, well, you know. And, aristarchus knows. He knows very well.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday April 12 2022, @05:42PM (1 child)
SLS could never be a real launch competitor to Starship, once developed. If the Starship were to cost 100 times as much as Elon predicts ($2 million x 100 is $200 million) that would mean that a single SLS launch ($4+ Billion) could buy 20 Starship launches.
SLS is not the competitor you are looking for. Move along.
I think a major failure of SLS before its maiden fright might finally be a wake up call to cancel the SLS and put it out of the tax payer's misery.
SLS never was anything but a jobs program for red states that need government money. To use up old space shuttle parts. To put four expensive re-usable engines ($140 million each x4) on an expendable launcher.
Why not have jobs programs doing something actually useful? Like repairing roads and bridges? A single SLS launch could repair an awful lot of roads and bridges.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12 2022, @10:24PM
Calling it a 'jobs program' is a distraction from the true purpose. Every dollar spent actually doing something is a dollar that didn't line a Boeing executive's or Congresscritter's pocket, and is thus available for someone else to steal. That's the point of projects like this. Blaming red states is also a distraction: One of SLS's key selling points is that parts of it are made in every state. The ESA has the same problem with their rocket program: The work gets divided up first so as to line the right pockets and the engineers then have to figure out how to cobble something together from the pile of required parts. The F35 is the mess it is for exactly the same reason.