NASA Eyes March 6 To Launch 4 Astronauts To the Moon On Artemis II Mission (npr.org) 23
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: NASA could launch four astronauts on a mission to fly around the moon as soon as March 6th. That's the launch date (PDF) that the space agency is now working towards following a successful test fueling of its big, 322-foot-tall moon rocket, which is standing on a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"This is really getting real," says Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA's exploration systems development mission directorate. "It's time to get serious and start getting excited." But she cautioned that there's still some pending work that remains to be done out at the launch pad, and officials will have to conduct a multi-day flight readiness review late next week to make sure that every aspect of the mission is truly ready to go. "We need to successfully navigate all of those, but assuming that happens, it puts us in a very good position to target March 6th," she says, noting that the flight readiness review will be "extensive and detailed." [...]
When NASA workers first tested out fueling the rocket earlier this month, they encountered problems like a liquid hydrogen leak. Swapping out some seals and other work seems to have fixed these issues, according to officials who say that the latest countdown dress rehearsal went smoothly, despite glitches such as a loss of ground communications in the Launch Control Center that forced workers to temporarily use backups.
"This is really getting real," says Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA's exploration systems development mission directorate. "It's time to get serious and start getting excited." But she cautioned that there's still some pending work that remains to be done out at the launch pad, and officials will have to conduct a multi-day flight readiness review late next week to make sure that every aspect of the mission is truly ready to go. "We need to successfully navigate all of those, but assuming that happens, it puts us in a very good position to target March 6th," she says, noting that the flight readiness review will be "extensive and detailed." [...]
When NASA workers first tested out fueling the rocket earlier this month, they encountered problems like a liquid hydrogen leak. Swapping out some seals and other work seems to have fixed these issues, according to officials who say that the latest countdown dress rehearsal went smoothly, despite glitches such as a loss of ground communications in the Launch Control Center that forced workers to temporarily use backups.
Target dates are needed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Target dates are needed (Score:5, Insightful)
"This is really getting real," says Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA's exploration systems development mission directorate. "It's time to get serious and start getting excited."
Not the best quote from an acting associate administrator. To me it sounds like she's saying everything up to now has been just playing around and now it's time to get serious. Not the best image to put into the public's mental vision.
I don't want a "we'll keep trying until we get it right" level of certainty. I don't want a "this rehearsal went smoothly with only a few hiccups" level of certainty. I want a "we've now done this four times successfully and landed" level of certainty before we put astronauts on board.
Re: Target dates are needed (Score:2)
hope I'm wrong (Score:1)
Re: hope I'm wrong (Score:2)
Government contracts that allow unlimited scope creep and unlimited funding is the real issue.
Re: (Score:2)
You can actually blame Congress for legislating the exact design, in order to spread the pork around as many districts as possible.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: hope I'm wrong (Score:3, Insightful)
Several people. You can google their names. Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Their resumes clearly indicate they're not stupid. Those same resumes (three fighter pilots and experienced astronaut) show that their personal sense of acceptable risk of personal injury and death differs from yours and mine and likely exceeds both.
This latter quality used to be known as "bravery" and time was, we valorized it, even if we were adult enough to acknowledge our own personal limits.
The exceptionally self-aware a
Re: (Score:2)
Well said.
seals seals seals... (Score:2)
it's always the seals. That's a lotta PSI at a very low Temp they're holding back.
I hope they get to Go. Godspeed.
Re: (Score:2)
Seals. Why did it have to be seals?
Going back of the history of Apollo, the Space Shuttle, and now Artemis. Seals for LH2 have been an ongoing problem.
With the small size of the H2 molecule, and the extreme cold (20K) finding reliable materials to make up these seals has been very challenging.
Mission: Step 3 (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFS and TFA:
NASA could launch four astronauts on a mission to fly around the moon as soon as March 6th.
And come back safely. Funny how articles always seem to forget this bit -- noting that JFK specifically *did* say this in his We choose to go to the Moon [wikipedia.org] speech:
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.
Re: Sorry, maybe I missed it... (Score:2)
They spent tens of millions on shareholder dividends, executive bonuses and expenses, conferences and meetings in order to imagine those parts of the mission. No engineers were involved.
Size Matters. (Score:2)
..its big, 322-foot-tall moon rocket..
This snort-and-choke-on-your-coffee moment brought to you by the timeless comedy of Austin Powers.
https://youtu.be/lYSOmYyNHpU [youtu.be]
Just tell me the NASA team had a sense of humor and unofficially named that thing Willy Nelson.
This is just more grandstanding. (Score:2)
The senior overpaid people at NASA and the military industrial complex needs shock and awe in order to keep us taxpayers fooled. What we really need is an orbital rotating space habitat and orbital assembly platforms. We need to establish a orbital workspace before we establish a real moon base. I see all this Artemis Mission stuff as just NASA putting on the big show for the big money. In my opinion, those in charge at NASA and at these transnational corporations are clearly misguided, self-serving and com
Around the moon (Score:2)
They are going around the moon, not to it.
When I fly from the east coast to west I don't typically say I'm going to each state I pass by.
The whole Artemis Program seems off (Score:2)
The real archilles heel of Artemis (Score:2)
The point is that someone is going to attempt it. This is been what has been missing for 54 years since Apollo. Even though I hate Trump and his minions, and I am not impressed with the Commercial space launch companies not delivering on stated promises. The act of attempting and doing this [turning words into actions] is really what counts.
The real problem comes with Artemis 3. Right now, I don't see any way we could beat China to a moon landing given the half-assed proposed fusion of the SLS with a commer
Already old news (Score:2)
This is already old news. Artemis II is likely rolling back to the vehicle assembly building and unlikely to launch before April.
This seems like an ill-advised adventure to me
Not anymore (Score:3)
Congress needs to answer for their role in this, as they've basically forced NASA to use polticially-favored [planetary.org] organizations.