Comments on: Europa Clipper to be delayed because of SLS bottleneck https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/europa-clipper-to-be-delayed-because-of-sls-bottleneck/ Tue, 27 Oct 2020 21:52:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Call Me Ishmael https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/europa-clipper-to-be-delayed-because-of-sls-bottleneck/#comment-1092068 Tue, 27 Oct 2020 21:52:24 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=70322#comment-1092068 “… we’re planning to build the Europa Clipper and then put it into storage …”

… and that worked so well for Galileo.

For those who are not planetary mission geeks, Galileo was shipped back and forth across the continent two or three times, and held in storage for several years, because Challenger and other shuttle delays kept delaying the launch. Which gave the lubricant on the high-gain-antenna deployment mechanism time and incentive to become, well, less lubricating. Which caused the high-gain antenna to stick half-open when they finally did try to deploy it. Which really crippled Galileo, despite all the workarounds they came up with.

]]> By: LocalFluff https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/europa-clipper-to-be-delayed-because-of-sls-bottleneck/#comment-1092060 Tue, 27 Oct 2020 21:13:42 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=70322#comment-1092060 At least Bridenstein sounds critical in your quote. It’s not a global warming-sure statement. And everyone involved with building this Clipper thing are of course smart enough to be well aware of the obvious fact that it will never ever fly on an SLS.

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