[SCRUBBED] NASA Attempts Launch of First Heavy-Lift Rocket Since Retiring Space Shuttle
Four hours until liftoff!? NASA is scheduled to launch its first heavy-lift rocket since retiring the space shuttle in 2011.
At long last, the SLS rocket will soon launch. After a dozen years and more than $20 billion, the Space Launch System rocket has been cleared for launch by NASA's Flight Readiness Review process. This week I wrote a feature about the rocket's history, my history with it, and where I think it is taking the space program. In the end, I have decidedly mixed feelings about the launch. I most definitely want it to succeed, but I also cannot let go of the fact that its production was in some ways responsible for a lost decade of US space exploration.
So it's bad, but also it may be good ... Between the rocket, its ground systems, and the Orion spacecraft launching on top of the stack, NASA has spent tens of billions of dollars. But I would argue that the opportunity costs are higher. For a decade, Congress pushed NASA's exploration focus toward an Apollo-like program, with a massive launch vehicle that is utterly expended, using 1970s technology in its engines, tanks, and boosters. The good news is that, in building Congress' favorite rocket, NASA has recently been able to wrangle money from Congress for an actual deep space exploration program-Artemis. I'm not sure that happens without SLS.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has been busy. It has independently developing its own heavy-lift rocket called Starship. With a designed lift capacity of 100 metric tons to low-earth orbit AND reusability, too. First nearly round-the-earth flight is slated for later this year and to Mars in a "couple years". Was this worth the expense to NASA? Who will use it?
[Update 0755 UTC - JR] They are having a problem filling the hydrogen tanks but the countdown is continuing while they are trying to resolve the problem. Launch is expected at 0833 EDT.
[Update 1047 UTC - JR] Live stream of the action on youtube. Problems getting engine 3 to the correct temperature and this is currently being actioned using bleed hydrogen from the other engines through engine 3.
[Update 1244 UTC - t] Artemis I: NASA has missed the first launch window for its SLS rocket
The next launch window opens on 2 September, with another on 5 September. If the spacecraft has to be rolled back inside to fix the engine issue, it will likely be delayed beyond that.
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