Artemis (NASA moon mission)

There's got to be some hydrogen up there, it's the most abundant element in the universe after all.
 
I am sitting in a parking lot about a block away from the Indian River. When the launch time gets closer, we'll see how close we can get to the river. Merritt Island, the home of Kennedy Space Center is just across the river from here. If we can get near Space View Park, pad 39B will be almost straight across from us.

Cell phone service isn't great. Lots of bars, but also a lot of people in a small area.
 
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Welp, they don't seem to be having any success in troubleshooting. The problem seems to be with a bleed valve on engine No. 3.
 
Starting to look doubtful that they're going to launch today. Still trying to formulate a new troubleshooting plan for a stuck bleed valve. They stopped the countdown clock at T minus 40 minutes and have been holding there.
 
I found an open WiFi connection so I can follow the updates online. Coverage over the air by radio and TV wasn't very informative. We are roughing it. Sitting in our RV, eating breakfast while watching the coverage on YouTube.
 
I suggest they bring in the last living engineer from Apollo 11, who will fix the problem in a counter-intuitive way.
 
Worth pointing out that these engines ARE known-good. NASA did a hot-fire test of this core stage last year and all four engines ran for a whole 8-minute burn without issues. They had to bleed the engine before that test too and it worked fine then. So I'm optimistic this is some minor issue that, once they know what it is, will be an easy fix.
 
Launch window times. Shouldn't there be a launch window everyday? An hour and 6 minutes different than the day before.
 
Speedskater said:
Launch window times. Shouldn't there be a launch window everyday? An hour and 6 minutes different than the day before.
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The Orion spacecraft is solar powered and can't be in the shadow of the earth or moon for more than about 90 minutes. So, the launch windows are based on more than just the relative positions of the earth and moon. Their positions relative to the sun have to be taken into account.

Also, the rocket can only sit on the pad for a limited number of days before it has to be returned to the VAB to be refurbished for launch.
 
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Speedskater said:
Launch window times. Shouldn't there be a launch window everyday? An hour and 6 minutes different than the day before.
Click to expand...

jadebox said:
The Orion spacecraft is solar powered and can't be in the shadow of the earth or moon for more than about 90 minutes. So, the launch windows are based on more than just the relative positions of the earth and moon. Their positions relative to the sun have to be taken into account.

Also, the rocket can only sit on the pad for a limited number of days before it has to be returned to the VAB to be refurbished for launch.
Click to expand...

And factor in launch windows for other platforms with associated needs from tracking and communication systems. Although I don't know if that's a factor in this delay. I know that Space X launched today and China has one scheduled for Friday.

I would not be surprised if NASA delayed an extra bit so as to avoid a launch on the or soon after the Chinese launch. Maybe they want to be extra able to avoid any debris from any launch failure - but don't want to be so overt about that line of reasoning.
 
crescent said:
And factor in launch windows for other platforms with associated needs from tracking and communication systems.
Click to expand...

Yes, all of those other things have to be considered plus other things like the availability of people working on the program.
 
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