Assuming there is a launch today, the SpaceX feed starts at 8:15 AM Eastern time:
There are a bunch of reasons why there might not be a launch, of course. There are also a bunch of reasons why the test results might be, Yeah. Don’t do it that way, huh? Eventually you have to put the sucker on a launch pad and see if you forgot to carry the one. But it’s still exciting.
…Look, test rockets blow up on the pad all the damn time. Even Elon Musk himself isn’t going to commit to it working on the first try. This is why they had to have FAA approval.
So adjust your expectations. The important thing will be, What do we learn from any oopsies? Failure is just another data point.
Which, honestly, is as it should be: “The U.S. Space Force is allocating three launch complexes at Cape Canaveral, including one used for several NASA Mercury missions six decades ago, to four small launch vehicle startups as the service tries to keep up with growing launch demand.” The Mercury pads are historic sites, yes. They’re also historic because that’s where people strove to put rockets in the sky. Put a brass placard on the side of the building, maybe add a mural, and get those sites working again.
Via Glenn Reynolds.
That is an incredibly rare event: a still from an asteroid impact. Perfectly safe, though, unless you were a fish in the English Channel. Some of those undoubtedly had a rough night.
Via Facebook.
Pretty much without a hitch, this time: “The historic Artemis I mission took flight in the early hours of Wednesday morning after months of anticipation. The milestone event kicked off a journey that will send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon, paving the way for NASA to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century.”
Footage of the launch itself:
We are going.
For the first time, the @NASA_SLS rocket and @NASA_Orion fly together. #Artemis I begins a new chapter in human lunar exploration. pic.twitter.com/vmC64Qgft9
— NASA (@NASA) November 16, 2022
[UPDATE]:
The DART mission. Less than a half hour out at this point. Watch the (hopeful) impact here:
I was going to get a post in, but the Artemis 1 launch is not gonna happen today. Engine troubles. Maybe they’ll get them fixed by September 2nd. Or September 5th.
Further commentary seems… unkind.
It’s amazing what you can do now with cameras, by Jove!
Somebody should go and take a closer look at it. …And pretty soon, we should actually be able to. We are so tantalizingly close to actually having rocketships…
Via @RobinDLaws.
Well, they call it the “Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center,” but I’m not calling it that. It’s the place in Virginia with all the cool big aerospace stuff. Which works for me.
I also saw Friendship 7 and the Concorde, but I forgot to get pictures of those. Anyway, we went with the kids, who started out being far too cool for the thing — and ended up snickering about space diapers and being properly revolted over astronaut ice cream. So it was a good time all around. Seriously: if you ever get the chance to go, go. As I said, it has all the BIG stuff, and you can go right up to them and take a good look. Totally worth the trip.
Moe Lane
