NASA announces new possible launch dates for first SLS launch
NASA on May 16th announced the new possible launch dates for first SLS launch, outlining potential launch windows through the first half of 2023, with the first at the end of July 2022.
The calendar of launch windows through June of ’23 can be viewed here [pdf].
The July 26th to August 10th window is the one the agency is clearly targeting for that first launch, but it will not confirm this until after SLS successfully completes the next dress rehearsal countdown attempt in June. That the agency is now showing us potential launch dates in ’23 also suggests it is anticipating the possibility the launch could be delayed that much, especially if it determines it must replace the SLS’s two solid rocket boosters because they have been stacked unused for too long.
SLS was initially planned for a launch in 2015. It is now seven-plus years behind schedule, which is how long it took SpaceX to go from a blank sheet of paper to launching its Falcon Heavy for the first time.
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NASA on May 16th announced the new possible launch dates for first SLS launch, outlining potential launch windows through the first half of 2023, with the first at the end of July 2022.
The calendar of launch windows through June of ’23 can be viewed here [pdf].
The July 26th to August 10th window is the one the agency is clearly targeting for that first launch, but it will not confirm this until after SLS successfully completes the next dress rehearsal countdown attempt in June. That the agency is now showing us potential launch dates in ’23 also suggests it is anticipating the possibility the launch could be delayed that much, especially if it determines it must replace the SLS’s two solid rocket boosters because they have been stacked unused for too long.
SLS was initially planned for a launch in 2015. It is now seven-plus years behind schedule, which is how long it took SpaceX to go from a blank sheet of paper to launching its Falcon Heavy for the first time.
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.
This is just a test run. Even if successful, they have to build an entirely new one for a second run. Another seven years?
Robert,
You wrote: “SLS was initially planned for a launch in 2015. It is now seven-plus years behind schedule, which is how long it took SpaceX to go from a blank sheet of paper to launching its Falcon Heavy for the first time.”
You are being so unfair! SpaceX started out with a working booster that they only needed to modify four times, but NASA started completely from scratch. Except for the Orion capsule, which Lockheed Martin had to slow-walk in order to match the slow pace of SLS. And the Solid Rocket Boosters, which are made up of Shuttle SRBs. And also the Shuttle main engine, which didn’t need modification, but they still spent extra to make each engine cost four times as much so that they would no longer be reusable. Plus the core stage is a modification from the Shuttle External Tank, but we really should never have expected that reusing Shuttle hardware would make it faster and cheaper than starting from scratch in order to make new hardware that was actually appropriate for the new mission rather than the old hardware that is really only appropriate for a Shuttle mission.
Plus we should have expected SpaceX to work faster, because they were a new company at the time, with a whopping decade of experience, and NASA only has a mere six decades of experience. You really should ease up on NASA and their rocket-science team: Congress. It’s not like they are trying to get us to the Moon, or to start a space commerce industry and economy, or anything. They are just spending taxpayer dollars in a Keynesian manner in order to boost our failing (flailing?) economy. Did I say tax money? I should have said borrowed money, except that no one is willing to lend us that much, so it is really printed money, these days, which explains our current inflation problem.
I’m so glad that government has our best interests in mind when it makes its lousy decisions. It gives me that nice warm feeling that the FAA will grant Boca Chica launch approval any year, now.
Stop laughing! It could happen.
Edward: Heh. Now that puts everything in perfect perspective.