I was just looking up the launch date for the new Saturn 5 size rocket, called the Space Launch System (???). It was supposed to go up in 2016 but has been delayed and delayed and delayed...

Now the latest info is a March 2022 launch date. Cool.

This little piece just tickled my pink.
-The program will culminate with landing the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon.-

How wonderful. Just amazing. Remember when NASA was the absolute best man for the job? Now all that matters is your gender or skin color.

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NASA now aims to launch massive next-generation rocket on debut flight in early 2022

The Space Launch System might finally fly next year

NASA is aiming to fly its massive, next-generation rocket, the Space Launch System, for the first time in February of 2022, a critical test flight on NASA’s journey to send people back to the Moon. However, plenty of tests still need to go well before the much-delayed vehicle can finally take flight.

Confirmation of the new target date, which was rumored in August, comes a day after engineers fully stacked the Space Launch System, or SLS, inside NASA’s massive hangar at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Standing at 322 feet high, the SLS rises taller than the Statue of Liberty. On top of the stack is NASA’s Orion crew capsule, a new spacecraft that’s been developed to carry people into deep space. However, when the SLS flies for the first time next year, there won’t be any people on board. The test mission will send an empty Orion capsule on a four- to six-week-long trip around the Moon.

SLS’ debut flight is known as Artemis I, the first major flight in NASA’s Artemis program. If the flight is successful, the SLS and Orion’s next mission will be Artemis II, which will carry NASA astronauts on a similar trajectory around the Moon. The program will culminate with landing the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon. During the Trump administration, Vice President Mike Pence challenged NASA to make this landing happen as early as 2024.

That timeline has since been called into question, given the complexity of the mission and numerous delays. Originally, NASA envisioned the SLS flying for the first time back in 2017, but its debut has been consistently pushed back again and again due to improper management and cost overruns. In the meantime, NASA also needs a lunar lander to bring people down to the surface of the Moon, which the SLS and Orion can’t do alone. The space agency awarded SpaceX a contract to develop its new vehicle, called Starship, to take people to the Moon’s surface. But the vehicle still has a long road of development ahead, and lawsuits filed by competitor Blue Origin, which did not receive the NASA contract, have complicated the process. Then there is still the matter of developing new spacesuits, which could also hold up the timeline.

Despite all that, NASA hasn’t quite given up on the 2024 target date, even after Joe Biden became president. “It’s a stretch, it’s a challenge, but the schedule is 2024,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in June. Nelson also recently acknowledged the sheer amount of work and obstacles that need to be overcome.

For now, NASA is mostly focused on getting Artemis I off the ground. If all goes well, NASA plans to roll out the fully stacked SLS out to the launchpad late this year. Early next year, the mission team will conduct what’s known as a wet dress rehearsal, where they will fill the rocket with the same propellants it will use for flight but without igniting the rocket’s engines. Once that’s complete, NASA will then roll the rocket back to its hangar for additional checks before rolling it to the launchpad again.

“I tell you I couldn’t be prouder of the team that got us to where we are today, despite the multiple challenges that we faced with COVID and major storms — most recently, Hurricane Ida — and the impacts that had on our testing facilities,” John Honeycutt, the SLS program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said during a press conference today.

As of now, Artemis I has three different launch windows: one in February, one in March, and one in April. Each window, dictated by how the Earth is moving about its axis and the Moon’s rotation around our planet, is roughly 15 days long, with the first window opening on February 12th. The timing of the launch within the window dictates how long Artemis I will stay in space, making it either a four-week mission or a six-week mission.

Once Artemis I is complete, then comes Artemis II with a target launch date sometime in 2023. For that flight, people will be on board, which means the vehicle will need even more additions, notably a life support system. NASA would not say whether the latest SLS delays have pushed back Artemis II, only that an update is on its way.

“I think the agency is continuing to look at that; we’re evaluating the status of that mission,” Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA, said during today’s press conference.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/...unch-orion-artemis-i

Well.......it may not be the best qualified Astronaut candidates going up, but it will be diverse and inclusive........if they make it there......and land safely.

Good.

Get some of us (not me, just humans in general) off this planet, stat.

Humanity is going to need options to survive for the long haul.

We need an Earth 2.0, 3.0, and more, on a species survival level.

We're sitting ducks regarding (rare) catastrophic events, with no backup plan.

An eventual Moon base, a Mars colony, etc, these are the first steps of many necessary moves.

Our sun will burn out one day. It's simply a matter of time.

quote:

Originally posted by 18DAI:
Well.......it may not be the best qualified Astronaut candidates going up, but it will be diverse and inclusive........if they make it there......and land safely.

Oh, they'll make it there and back, because the scientists, engineers, mathematicians are the best and brightest, the most qualified...

Wait until that changes, then the most diverse won't get off the launch pad.

I am excited too ...good to see us launching stuff that isn't SpaceX...

quote:

This little piece just tickled my pink.
-The program will culminate with landing the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon.-

What ?.. We're launching Vice President Harris ?

The Artimus engines are assembled about 8 miles down the road from me at the NASA Michaud facility in New Orleans. They then go to stennis for testing, back to Michoud for rebuild then to FL via barge

Just curious how you know they are not the best and brightest? You have seen their CV’s and have the background and education to judge?

I believe anyone who becomes an astronaut is qualified for any mission. They are all extremely bright, talented and driven people.

quote:

Originally posted by 1flynDO:
I believe anyone who becomes an astronaut is qualified for any mission. They are all extremely bright, talented and driven people.

Have you seen Bill Nelson?

quote:

Originally posted by 1flynDO:

Just curious how you know they are not the best and brightest?

You might argue that Christa McAuliffe was not really a qualified astronaut, and you would be correct in that argument, but still, she did occupy a position on a shuttle launch.

Was she the "best and brightest" person available for that flight? I doubt it.

„the first animals in space were a group of fruit flies, launched to an altitude of 42 miles at the tip of a V-2 rocket“

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by 1flynDO:

Just curious how you know they are not the best and brightest?

You might argue that Christa McAuliffe was not really a qualified astronaut, and you would be correct in that argument, but still, she did occupy a position on a shuttle launch.

Was she the "best and brightest" person available for that flight? I doubt it.

Or this one...certainly they could have found somebody better and brighter than this one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Nowak

Honestly, PC BS aside, I'm excited to see us going back to the moon, and am looking forward to watching the launch of this new massive rocket. I've taken my kids to Huntsville and stood under the Saturn V on display there. It's absolutely awe inspiring...and a little sad that we no longer have the capability to do what we did in 1969. I've never been to a launch...always wanted to, but when they retired the shuttle I figured I'd missed my chance. Maybe I'll get to take my kids to watch the SLS someday.

The company I work for designed and built the Orion crew module (space capsule) part of all this, will be great to see that first test launch.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
The company I work for designed and built the Orion crew module (space capsule) part of all this, will be great to see that first test launch.

That's pretty cool. Are you involved directly?

The moon is the perfect stepping stone platform for further space exploration and colonization. It is a relatively short trip, probably has sufficient ice locked up in its substrate, at least some protection from earth’s magnetosphere and shadow from solar radiation, and within far easier reach in the event of an emergency, and minimal gravity well to escape during launches which equates to far less fuel needed to get off the surface. As far as the pandering to various communities, some passengers will be exactly that- propaganda baggage.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
This little piece just tickled my pink.
-The program will culminate with landing the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon.-

How wonderful. Just amazing. Remember when NASA was the absolute best man for the job? Now all that matters is your gender or skin color.

-

You need to Watch For All Mankind on AppleTV.

This very thing is what's happening in the show with predictable results.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
The company I work for designed and built the Orion crew module (space capsule) part of all this, will be great to see that first test launch.

That's pretty cool. Are you involved directly?

Oh no, LOL

I just work for them, defense contractor. I do work directly with people at Titusville, FL but nothing directly related to Orion really.



As far as the whole “we will land the first woman on the moon” thing, how much you all want to bet it will be a transgender and real women will again be sidelined. I wouldn’t put it past them that’s how screwed up we are right now as a country.

I thought NASA's administrator Charles Bolden said they were supposed to make the Islamic world feel better about themselves?

How about just paying attention to the rockets and stuff.

I find it funny that people think this is wonderful that were going to the moon

we've been there and done that 52 years ago

this is nothing more than a repeat stunt by an agency doing everything it can to remain relevant

with the 'best and brightest' we have today, they're still six years behind and billions over budget

I predict they will launch 1 SLS and then retire the program in favor of those that can do it faster, cheaper, easier, without bureaucratic bloat and actually do cutting edge work rather than a poor remake of a 1969 project

Armstrong and Cernan must be rolling over in their graves at what NASA has become

Kennedy's moon speech was 1962, we walked on the surface in 1969. This program has one delay of the test flight that has lasted almost as long as it took to put boots on the ground the first go around.

We are doing something wrong here.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:

Have you seen Bill Nelson?

I've seen Tony Nelson. He didn't seem that bright at times and he went into space.