When NASA's Artemis 1 rocket launch pad took off last week, it appeared to have more damage than expected.

According to a source within the agency, the damage to the launchpad "exceeded mission management's expectations," and according to his description, it sounds pretty severe.

"Elevator blast doors were blown off, various pipes were broken, some large sheets of metal left laying around," the reporter noted in response to SpaceNews' Jeff Foust, who on Friday summarized a NASA statement acknowledging that the launchpad's elevators weren't working because of

Trickle Down

The launch of the Artemis 1 was preceded by a number of events, including the delayed development of the Space Launch System that boosted it into space, and the craft suffering damage from a Hurricane just prior to launch.

After the launch, NASA acknowledged that debris was seen falling off the rocket, though they maintained that there was no risk to the mission.

Reporters revealed that NASA seemed very intent on not photographing the Artemis launch tower, and with these preliminary reports about how messed up it seems to have gotten, we might know why.

We contacted NASA for comment about the damage to the launch tower. It wasn't bad enough to prevent the capsule from being launched into space and to begin taking selfies and photos of the moon.

What's the real question? The SLS is supposed to send American astronauts back to the moon in a few years.

NASA is adjusting the james wbb to get damaged by meteorites less.