Watching the first SLS launch tonight
At this moment, with weather 90% favorable and the countdown underway, the first launch of NASA’s SLS rocket appears go for a 1:04 AM (Eastern) launch tonight.
You can watch the live stream on NASA TV here, which will begin at 3:30 pm today and mostly be NASA propaganda intermixed with descriptions of the rocket, its payloads, its full mission, and updates on the launch countdown.
NASA’s live stream is now embedded below, beginning at 10:30 PM (Eastern) when actual coverage of the final countdown begins. I would still suggest that you wait until at least 12:30 AM (Eastern) before watching, as those first two hours will still be filled with a lot of NASA propaganda blather.
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.
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At this moment, with weather 90% favorable and the countdown underway, the first launch of NASA’s SLS rocket appears go for a 1:04 AM (Eastern) launch tonight.
You can watch the live stream on NASA TV here, which will begin at 3:30 pm today and mostly be NASA propaganda intermixed with descriptions of the rocket, its payloads, its full mission, and updates on the launch countdown.
NASA’s live stream is now embedded below, beginning at 10:30 PM (Eastern) when actual coverage of the final countdown begins. I would still suggest that you wait until at least 12:30 AM (Eastern) before watching, as those first two hours will still be filled with a lot of NASA propaganda blather.
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.
I’ll bet ten quatloos that it will abort on a hydrogen leak tonight. No way all those seals are still intact after Nicole.
I’ll take that bet.
I have a feeling NASA won’t be too fussy about taking some risk. All these delays must be becoming a form of torture.
Also I have trouble believing some wind gusts could seriously damage a rocket designed to withstand the stresses of launch (especially SLS with the boosters on the sides resulting in loads at angles other than directly below) unless a piece of debris was driven into the vehicle (would have surely been spotted by inspections).
Though if I lose I’ll have to take a trip to Triskelion because I don’t think banks here exchange dollars for quatloos!
That launch window doesn’t work for me. I’m going to bed, somebody wake me up when Marvin the Martian gets his earth shattering kaboom. On second thought, the launch video will likely be posted here.
Oh no! The red crew is mobilizing to address a core stage LH2 leak. Anyway.
I made the mistake of clicking on the live stream.
If I told them once, I told them a million times, H2 is the lightest element and you gotta have those seals down pat! LH2 is one of those things you need if you have LO2.
The red crew team is going in! Go red crew team! Highly trained group is going in to tighten bolts. 15minutes of work in a hazardous area.
Mitch,
Yes, this has the odor of Go Fever. I’m sure they have a manager on call for any last-minute launch waivers.
They really don’t have a way to do close inspections on the pad; they’d have to roll back to the VAB to do that. And the wind force induces stress in directions that are not part of the flight profile.
Going to be interesting, whatever happens.
Yo,
Red crew, eh? On the original Star Trek, wearing a red shirt was not good for your long term health.
“On the original Star Trek, wearing a red shirt was not good for your long term health.”
Generally true, with a notable exception.
2213. Still sitting there.
Watched. Artemis. Done. Last of the classic boosters.
Like a Cadillac 1969.
holy cow, there’s a cottage industry regarding this–>
“Every Single Redshirt Death in Star Trek: TOS”
https://youtu.be/9iFyc0dPqig
9:28
vs.
“Red Shirts Are the Safest”
https://youtu.be/GIRRDO7_SZI
2:47
Referencing the rocket launch–
I sincerely thought it would blow up.
Watching the NASA feed– extremely disappointed with camera angles and tracking.
–What’s up with the polling they did?? It’s as if everyone had to raise their right hand and swear everything was ok.
I wonder if all the techs are as amazed it didn’t blow up as many here are??
Tory Bruno voice on: where are my quatloos Diane? Scotty wore Red too.
” Last of the classic boosters.”
‘Oh, cool! Are the boosters landing at Kennedy, like SpaceX?”
No.
“What about the fairings? Will NASA catch and re-use those?”
No.
“The central stage?”
No.
“Uh, what do we get back?”
The capsule, in about three weeks.
“Tell me again how this is different than the Saturn V – Apollo?”
Mitch, will you take an IOU for those ten quatloos?