Next SLS launch attempt set for September 3, 2022
NASA will make its next launch attempt of its SLS rocket on September 3, 2022, with a launch window opening at 2:17 pm.
However, the weather might not cooperate. At present forecasters only give a 40% chance for launch.
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NASA will make its next launch attempt of its SLS rocket on September 3, 2022, with a launch window opening at 2:17 pm.
However, the weather might not cooperate. At present forecasters only give a 40% chance for launch.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
Here’s something else ridicules I just heard on the news. The flight termination batteries only last 25 days before needing to be replaced. This timeout occurs on 6th September. After that they need to roll back to the VAB to swap them out. The ridicules part is that it takes 6 WEEKS to swap them out.
Apologies for using the wrong word. I meant ridiculous not ridicules. This comes with trying to rush a comment first thing in the morning while eating breakfast.
Man, Are they DESPERATE to beat SpaceX! Watch NASA crank up the propaganda volume to 11. Bob, when do you think Superheavy will launch?
Simon, 1) They’ll waiver the 25 day deadline. After all, the SRB’s have been set up for almost TWO years, almost a year after their “Must use by date” 2) Six weeks? Old Space strikes again
“NASA officials previously said the 20-day limit on the FTS, after which the unit would need to be retested, restricted the launch opportunities for the mission. The Eastern Range requires the FTS to be tested 15 days before launch, starting a 20-day clock to conduct the launch. That would have allowed launches to take place on Aug. 29 and Sept. 2, but not a third opportunity Sept. 5.
“The clock starts during processing in the VAB,” or Vehicle Assembly Building, said Judd Frieling, NASA Artemis 1 ascent/entry flight director, during a briefing Aug. 5 at the Johnson Space Center. Specifically, that period starts when the batteries for the FTS are installed and charged.
Those batteries, he said, were previously certified for only 20 Analog had an article , ends Sept. 6.:”
See, we’ve already had one waiver, I’m sorry, but I have to call on my Army experience as a Range Safety Officer. The RSO is the direct representative of the Commanding Officer and bears total responsibility for the safe operation of the range. That’s his one and only job. If he observes something unsafe, his duty is to shut the range down immediately. His decisions can not be questioned, but must be obeyed, There is no negotiation between, say, the Range Officer and the RSO. His decision is final. So, I am shocked that the Eastern Test Range is willing to compromise its safety requirements,
Back in the Eighties, Analog had an article called “Pushing the Button” by G harry Stine, one of the first generation of RSO’s at White Sands. He got there shortly after they had managed to have a V2 come down in Mexico. The Commanding General was immediately sacked and retired. The new CG was the ex-Commandant of the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill and had previously served as its Range Officer and he had orders to clean up the mess at White Sands by yesterday. He brought the policies and regulations for range operations with him and imposed them ruthlessly.
Anyway, Stine recounted that he was RSO for a planned shot of a sounding rocket that had been delayed several times by high winds. The scientist in charge was getting angry and started making hints that Stine was a coward for not letting him launch. Things finally came to head when they had high winds again and the scientist, red faced, announced he didn’t care, he was going to launch anyway. Stine told if he did, Stine was going to push the Destruct button as soon as the rocket cleared the tower. He did and Stine did.
The next morning , Stine was summoned to the Commanding Gerneral’s office. The CG said, “Dr X has told me thus and such, about what happened yesterday, what is your version?” Stine gave his account, ending with words to effect of, “I thought it was unsafe to launch and in the interests of safety terminated the rocket’s flight”. The CG thanked Stine, then turned to look at Dr X with loathing and announced, coldly, but without raising his voice, that Dr X had until sundown to get himself, all his personnel and all his equipment off the post. If he didn’t the Military Police would arrest him and throw him in guardhouse. And he’d better find some other place to launch his rockets from, he was never going to set foot on White Sands ever again.
No negotiation, no arguments, these are the Range Regulations and the RSO can’t be challenged
Sorry, some sort of headspace on my part.
Please delete “Analog had an article ends September 6” and substitute “Those batteries, he said, were previously certified for only 20 days. “They are in talks with the Eastern Range to extend that certification to a little bit longer than 20 days, hopefully to bring in a third attempt, but those negotiations are still in work.”
With the extension of the FTS certification to 25 days, NASA could proceed with a Sept. 5 launch opportunity if needed. ”
My apologies!
They’re going to have another go at it, but as far as I can tell they haven’t said what’s been done about the the engine chill down issue. Shirley they aren’t going to do exactly the same thing and expect different results. Because that’s a sign of mental illness.
John- NASA will do whatever it wants to do, and gin up a waiver to provide paper to cover their butts! And stop calling me Shirley!
“I just wanted to say good luck. We’re all counting on you.”
“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue”
-NASA SLS Flight Engineer
Any update yet on if engineers have found and fixed the problem?
The only thing about the Forbes article that stood out for me is how the writer called the Saturn V rocket by the name Saturn V system.
Where I have worked, there have been specific rules about who was in charge of what, who could control what, and that anyone could call “stop” if they thought there was a safety issue (human safety or equipment safety). In Col Beausabre’s story, Dr. X should not have had access to the firing button (which may be why there is such separation, these days). The experimenter (the payload) should rely upon a launch team that knows the rules and follows them.
If Stine had to blow up a sounding rocket because an overeager principal investigator couldn’t be bothered with safety, good for him.
I worked at two companies that had dropped satellites onto the floor (not Boeing’s dropped tank end-cap, a few years ago), but not at the time that they dropped them. One company got very serious about error prevention, and the other company figured that it couldn’t happen again because it had already happened and everyone would be more careful. I didn’t see a lot of that extra care, while I was at the second company.
I don’t know about the battery in question or the rules about it, but I am willing to bet that they are not violating expiration dates (or times?) or that they have a way of determining whether the battery is still go for launch. It may be a reason to scrub Saturday’s attempt. If NASA is violating these safety requirements, then they are suffering from a similar “go fever” that Dr.X suffered.
“I just wanted to say good luck. We’re all counting on you.”
(Note for anyone who hasn’t seen Airplane; repeating the same line is the joke.)