Artemis Stuff

[Yazata]

SLS is slated to roll out to the pad on November 4, for launch on November 14.

NASA photo of SLS in the Vertical Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center

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[Yazata]

Big Artemis anxiety! SLS is currently out at the pad at 39A, in preparation for its planned launch on the 14th.

Well, there was a storm out in the Atlantic that looked like it might hit Florida. But it wasn't very strong, organized or even cyclonic. So they decided to leave SLS out. Unfortunatly the storm rapidly strengthened to tropical storm strength and now looks like it will be weak hurricane strength when it hits the Florida coast. And SLS is still out there! Unclear if they will try to roll it back or even if there is time to do that before the storm hits. They are saying that while Cape Canaveral might not see hurricane force winds, it has a 70% chance of tropical storm force winds.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at2.sh...t#contents

[Yazata]

A hurricane is bearing down on Cape Canaveral, and SLS is still out there on the pad!!

https://twitter.com/ExploreSpaceKSC/stat...9209158656

There are weather instruments on the pad that feed into the internet, so everyone can see current conditions. Right now the storm is still offshore but they are already getting gusts of up to 60 mph at the pad.

I have a bad feeling about this...

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?&zoom=16&s...ovider=ALL

These weather instruments belong to KSC and while their location on the pad is marked, it isn't clear how high off the ground they are.

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[Yazata]

Artemis press conference: the rocket checks out fine after the storm and launch is still on for november 16, with backup days on the 19th and 25th.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2022/11/1...h-attempt/

[Yazata]

SLS on the pad - workers at the bottom for scale.

Its launch is now scheduled for Wednesday 11-16-2022 (1:04 AM EST, 6:04 AM UTC 10:04 PM Tuesday PST)

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[Yazata]

The Artemis 1 launch scheduled for tonight is still on track. Countdown details here:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2022/11/1...ogressing/

[Yazata]

Well, after some prelaunch drama, SLS got off to a perfect launch and the Interim Cryogenic Upper Stage and the Orion capsule are now in orbit. Trans-Lunar Injection burn still to come, that will fling the Orion up into an orbit around the Moon.

People can say what they will (there are lots of SLS haters out there) it's done very well on its first flight, so far.

I like SLS so much that it pains me a little that they can't recover and reuse it. Those four beautiful engines that performed so well, all of them Space Shuttle veterans, just discarded. Almost criminal.

[Yazata]

SLS has successfully performed its trans-lunar injection, left Earth orbit, and Orion and its service module have separated from the interim cryogenic upper stage and are rising towards orbit around the Moon.

Lockheed Martin photo

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[Yazata]

Orion on its way to the Moon (nasa photo)

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[C C]

Draws first blood. And China apparently gave up trying to imitate it, going the Elon way.

China scraps expendable Long March 9 rocket plan in favor of reusable version
https://spacenews.com/china-scraps-expen...e-version/