NASA Leaves Its Artemis I Rocket Exposed to Winds Above Design Limits
Freeman writes:
Early on Thursday morning, Hurricane Nicole made landfall near Vero Beach, on Florida's eastern coast. Because Nicole had a very large eye, nearly 60 miles in diameter, its strongest winds were located well to the north of this landfalling position.
As a result of this, Kennedy Space Center took some of the most intense wind gusts from Nicole late on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. While such winds from a Category 1 hurricane are unlikely to damage facilities, they are of concern because the space agency left its Artemis I mission-consisting of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft-exposed on a pad at Launch Complex-39B. The pad is a stone's throw from the Atlantic Ocean.
How intense were the winds? The National Weather Service hosts data from NASA sensors attached to this launch pad's three lighting towers on a public website.
https://www.space.com/tropical-storm-nicole-batters-florida-nasa-artemis-1-moon-rocket
It's not yet known if the storm will cause further delays of the launch of the highly anticipated launch of the Artemis 1 moon mission. NASA already delayed its launch to Wednesday (Nov. 16) to allow personnel to shelter from the storm. This is not the first time the launch has been delayed due to a storm; Hurricane Ian in late September forced NASA to roll SLS back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for shelter while critical repairs on glitching fueling valves were performed.
As the launch of Artemis 1 continues to be delayed, there are growing concerns that some of the SLS vehicle's components could expire based on current NASA analyses of their lifespans. If the launch is pushed back past mid-December, the agency will have to conduct further reviews to determine if the vehicle's boosters and other components remain launch-worthy.
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