AKA it's such a slow news period that Space.com is running
a story on a Marvel movie trailer
that was just released. And
another story on a book that relates to the Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Two stories on Marvel entertainment? Seriously?
I swear I'm not making this up.
The Juice Breaks Loose Thursday Morning
The European Space Agency's JUICE Mission - Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer is currently scheduled for launch on Thursday morning, Apr 13, at 8:15 AM EDT. The mission launches atop an Ariane 5 from the Guiana Space Centre, in French Guiana. This is the same launch vehicle and location that carried the James Webb Space Telescope to its orbit.
The Ariane 5 and Juice payload integrated and ready to roll out to the launch pad. This picture is dated as having been taken on the 8th but posted to the mission website today. ESA Photo.
SpaceX Called off the WDR today.
In a move that surprised me, I started watching the Lab Padre cameras before the expected 8AM road closure this morning and it was surprisingly low in visible activity. Pretty quickly, commenters came to the conclusion it had been cancelled for the day. Not long after that, people reported the Cameron County website showed no road closures until next Monday, the 17th.
Much later in the day, the SpaceX main corporate account Tweeted:
Teams are focused on launch readiness ahead of Starship’s first integrated flight test as soon as next week, pending regulatory approval – no launch rehearsal this week spacex.com/launches/
I can find nothing authoritative to get any reliable information on what's planned for this week.
There's stuff coming; Tuesday, 4/18, is the Falcon Heavy launch, but that's a week away and little news is out.
As I sit here, SiG, I am watching S24 being destacked. Apparently SpaceX wants the Ship to be a lot lower so they can reach/install/enable FTS - among other things...
ReplyDeleteIt's 22:46 Pacific time zone...
What has happened over at Teslarati, Eric Ralph seems to have disappeared?
ReplyDeleteI was never notified of him shutting down or being shut down, but back in mid-March when it had been a week or two since he posted anything, I went searching for a "contact us" form to find out what happened to the updates. I subscribed to Teslarati but had to go to an address off their merchandise page.
DeleteI received a nice, polite response saying they had shutdown the weekly mailings and refunded my subscription, but nothing in particular about their SpaceX coverage or Eric Ralph. A few days later they posted the update that's the latest thing there now: about Saudi and UAE investors, that was updated March 23.
As we get closer to the probable launch, I keep checking back expecting someone to post something but nothing's there. They still have all the previous SpaceX posts, and nothing since 3/23. It looks like they're shifting to be entirely Tesla news.
There was also a Juicy Small A Mission, but two white rockets in MAGA hats beat it up and tied a rope around its neck.
ReplyDeleteI saw the news on BET's website, so it must have happened.
You win the internets for the day, Aesop. Stop by the lobby to pick up your prize.
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