NASA seems to be in full “send it” mode for the Artemis I mission

Senior officials at NASA joined a teleconference to speak with reporters about the current plan to launch the Artemis I mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida

The rocket is ready, according to officials. NASA engineers expressed confidence in their new fueling procedures after a successful propellant loading test.

NASA and the US Space Force agreed to extend the battery life for the rocket's onboard flight terminated system. A planned launch attempt for Tuesday, September 27th was left only by the weather. Due to a tropical depression that will likely track toward Florida in the next few days, the schedule is in serious danger. The launch window has an 80% chance of bad weather.

To roll, or not to roll

NASA is not giving up despite the bad forecast.

Mike Bolger is the manager of NASA's Exploration Ground Systems Program at Kennedy Space Center. We realize that we need to think about a plan B.

Bolger explained that NASA had a backup plan that involved rolling the rocket and spacecraft back into the Vehicle Assembly Building, where they would be protected from the elements. It would take about three days to get the rocket ready. NASA wants to make a decision by Saturday. The weather will be a topic of discussion on Friday evening.

NASA needs to make sure it has the best data about Tropical Depression Nine because the comments were reasonable. The forecasts should improve over the next couple of days.

NASA needs to wait long enough to get the best forecast, but also have enough time to roll back the rocket and let employees go before the worst of the storm arrives. The earliest reasonable arrival time for tropical storm-force winds is around midday on Tuesday, so waiting until Saturday morning would be cutting it close.

Off the rails

The teleconference went off the rails after Bolger said something. The SLS rocket would not be rolled back to its hangar if the space center were hit by a missile.

It would be my recommendation to roll back if we actually experienced a real storm. The footprint of those things is usually smaller for high winds.

At a level of 60 feet off the ground, NASA's risk analyses showed that the SLS rocket and Orion spaceship could survive winds up to 74.1 knots. There would be concerns about things that might be moving around in a storm like that, but the main risk is wind loads on the vehicle. The space agency is worried about foreign object debris with its space hardware.

At a cost of more than $30 billion, the rocket and spacecraft were developed in a tropical system, which raises the question of what the upside is. NASA wants to wait out the weather in order to launch on September 27 or October 2. It will need to go back to the hangar if that doesn't happen.

The next attempt is likely to be pushed into the second half of November. Life-limited items would be coming up in that case. This seemed to be an admission that the clock is running on a rocket that has been fully stacked for launch for nearly a year and which has critical parts that cannot be serviced in that configuration. NASA wants to get off the pad as quickly as possible.