SLS rolled back to launch site for dress rehearsal countdown
NASA engineers today returned the agency’s SLS rocket to its launchpad for its next attempt to complete a full dress rehearsal countdown, completing the journey from the vehicle assembly building in 8 hours.
They will spend the next two weeks preparing the rocket for that dress rehearsal, with the two-day countdown to begin no no earlier than June 17th.
Readers!
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In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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NASA engineers today returned the agency’s SLS rocket to its launchpad for its next attempt to complete a full dress rehearsal countdown, completing the journey from the vehicle assembly building in 8 hours.
They will spend the next two weeks preparing the rocket for that dress rehearsal, with the two-day countdown to begin no no earlier than June 17th.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
If the SLS passes its wet dress rehearsal, and EPA gives SpaceX the go-ahead in mid-June, we could see the start of an epic race between SLS and Starship to be the first to fly! If SpaceX gets to fly from Boca Chica, it may well win, but if it has to re-position to Cape Canaveral, SLS probably has the advantage. So SLS may hold the title of largest rocket to fly, but the smart money says it won’t be for long!
Or will SpaceX be presented with a set of compliance requirements that are achievable enough to tempt it to continue efforts at Boca Chica until they can be met? An even more bizarre possibility looms… what if SpaceX is blocked, but the public uproar is so loud that Biden sees the chance to win votes in November by issuing an Executive Order to allow SpaceX to proceed! Just think, it might force Musk to keep a low profile instead of being anti-Biden, and certainly win votes in south Texas, where Dems are in trouble anyway!
I hope SpaceX gets approval to launch and we have a clean race! If they do, I’ll bet they win!
the public uproar is so loud that Biden sees the chance to win votes in November by issuing an Executive Order to allow SpaceX to proceed!
Ha ha ha, <gasp>, ha ha ha, <gasp>
You greatly overestimate the number of people who care about SpaceX and greatly underestimate the ability to manufacture votes. “win votes [based on supporting American business]” – how quaintly last century.
Well, I did use the term “bizarre possibility”.
Am I paranoid to wonder if the Biden regime might try to take SpaceX from Elon Musk?
Yes, I am.
This rocket is threatening to log more miles on the ground than it will in the air.
SLS Tower news coming this week.
https://twitter.com/sciguyspace/status/1534534706095595521?s=21&t=yReKdJCGhKfuxYygJE3u8g
Gary: See my essay on this IG report, posted two hours ago.