A Couple of Space News Clips

Virgin Galactic has announced a delay to the start of their commercial flight business from the fourth quarter of this year until the first of '23.  The problem?  The supply chain.  

“We are executing on our plans to scale the business by developing our future fleet, investing in digital manufacturing technologies, and building out our commercial strategy to deliver a consumer experience like no other,” said Michael Colglazier, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Galactic. “Against a backdrop of escalating supply chain and labor constraints, our teams are containing the majority of these issues to minimize impact on schedules. We look forward to returning to space in the fourth quarter and launching commercial service in the first quarter of next year.”

Virgin Galactic says their financial picture is secure, going into lots of details.  What jumps out to me is their saying they have “Approximately 800 Future Astronaut Reservations” and that demand for tickets remains strong.   I think their Unity spacecraft carries four, so that's 200 flights.  Sounds like they need more spacecraft and more reusability. 

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The current target for Artemis/SLS to be rolled back out to pad 39B for the next attempt at a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) is "before the end of May," and the next attempt at the WDR will be in "early or mid-June."

The last time they rolled the SLS stack out to the pad it was two weeks before the WDR started; the rollout started on March 17th and the test started April 1st.  The test took far longer than the estimated 2-3 days, before being cancelled on the 16th and rolled back to the VAB on the night of the 25/26th. 

Remember the stuck check valve?  One thing in the description of results to date caught my eye (emphasis added):

Among the fixes made in recent weeks has been the replacement of a "check valve" in the rocket's upper stage, which had been forced open by a small piece of rubber. How that piece of debris got into the valve remains under investigation.

That doesn't fill me with optimism.  

As before, after a successful test NASA will still need to roll the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to arm the flight termination system, and then roll it back to the pad again before the rocket can be launched. NASA is currently looking at launching no earlier than August, but it must work around the planned liftoff of its Psyche asteroid mission on a Falcon Heavy. The Psyche spacecraft arrived at the KSC for testing and integration this week. 

SLS on Pad 39B at the start of preparations for the Wet Dress Rehearsal tests.  NASA photo.