As the days slip by, it seems as if the Artemis II mission slides farther out in time more than one day per day. That mostly has to do with there only being five or six days per month that it can achieve the required orbit, so if it can't launch by March 11th, for example, it just got a possible 21 day delay - it can't get to the moon launching on March 12th, 13th or any day until April 1st. (Coincidentally, what a great day for the big Artemis mission! April Fool's Day!)
In Sunday's post, we related that they were supposed to roll the Artemis II SLS back today, but that was delayed by the little piece of the "Bomb Cyclone" dumping snow in the Northeast that we're getting here.
Due to weather, NASA now is targeting early Wednesday, Feb. 25, to roll the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for Artemis II off the launch pad and back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Cold temperatures and high winds are expected Tuesday, and rolling on Feb. 25, gives teams enough time to complete preparations at the launch pad that were limited today by high winds in the area.
The approximately 4-mile trek is expected to take up to 12 hours. Once back in the VAB, teams will immediately begin work to install platforms to access the area of the helium flow issue.
SpaceX, meanwhile, is getting back to their cadence of close to 3 launches per week, with the launch of Starlink 6-110 from Cape Canaveral at 6:04 PM. (That video starts at T-30 seconds) We replayed a common goof we make here, we know the launch is coming, we know the time, and have some reminders set, but we'll end up forgetting about it until we hear the first rumble of the engines. By that time, it's always so far downrange that we won't see it from the yard (unless it's at night, cloud free or low clouds in the direction we'll look).
Neither was the case when the sound got here. First thing I did was look up at a clock and could see it looked like the time I expected to hear the rumble, around 3 minutes after liftoff, and by the time I pulled up YouTube, it was just getting ready for entry burn (around 6 mins after launch) I watched until the booster landed on the recovery drone, Just Read The Instructions. This was the 10th launch of Booster 1092, so "like new" or whatever the used car dealers say. About an hour after the launch SpaceX said all the satellites were delivered into orbit nominally.
I wonder what the probability is of used rocket dealers becoming a real thing? Unlike cars, they require a LOT of specialized equipment to use them, so maybe used rocket dealers would offer launch services, like"buy the rocket, use our pad and recovery drone!"
SpaceX Falcon B1092 rocket lifts off from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to begin the Starlink 6-110 mission, Feb. 24, 2026. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
> I wonder what the probability is of used rocket dealers becoming a real thing?
ReplyDelete"And here we have Artemis II, only rolled to and from the pad by a little old agency on Sundays. Please step around the puddle of leaking fluids."
Maybe not a viable business but would make a great parody website.
DeleteI'd not be surprised if the nasa people haven't developed thick calluses on their palms...
ReplyDeletePiece of crap Crawler does only 4 miles in 12 hours... which I personally think is stupid because of all the deadweight metal that has to be dragged around. Why can't they simply design a lightweight cover building that moves out of the way?
ReplyDeleteThink this is a good idea. It could be on rails. Trains are heavy so the moveable building really would not need to be "lightweight".
DeleteTh Crawler was designed for both the Saturn family that was launched and for future heavy lift Saturns. It was over-designed and over-built so it cold be used for heavier vehicles in the future. As such it is an excellent design and not needing rails and such.
DeleteThe Shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg, never used of course, was designed with a roll-over building and assembly on the pad of all the components.
Part of the problem at the Cape is that you can't build down. You can only build up, due to the ground almost being at sea level. To build a smooth ramp for rail transport would have taken a whole lot of dirt and rock and pilings and and and in order to get the base of the launch pad at high enough levels to allow the flame deflectors to be big enough to handle said flames. Again, the launch pads were future-proofed and built far heavier in anticipation of heavier launch vehicles and the accompanying heavier thrust.
So what did NASA do? Build the Shuttle and the SLS which were/are not heavier thrusts than the fully loaded Saturn V.
Now, SpaceX, noting what NASA did, decided to go completely weird and stack their Starship at the pad. So flat transport of the two stages to the pad is easily accomplished by heavy transport. Starship being loaded with cargo in the processing facility, of course.
NASA is stuck with legacy equipment because they've blown their budget with overly expensive Cost Plus vehicles. Like the Shuttle, which never launched at the tempo we were promised. Or a SLS that actually worked and was inexpensive. And look at the SLS launch tower, which only cost us 3 times what was bid, and that's for the tower that cannot handle any SLS after the potentially upcoming Artemis II launch.