The reporters tasked with covering the agency are upset that NASA decided to conduct a major test of its Space Launch System without any press in attendance.
This kind of dress rehearsal, which is spaceflightspeak for final prelaunch tests in which rockets are rolled out to the launchpad and prepared for liftoff, is almost always open to the public and press.
The press corps and the public have never been left in the dark about a new NASA vehicle.
Young remarked that even as the wet dress rehearsal draws ever closer, NASA is still working on a timetable to release to the press and public.
According to a statement from NASA, the press is barred from the launch of the SLS megarocket because it could compromise military security. NASA wouldn't give any more information about the wet dress rehearsal because it could give an indication about the operations, according to New York Times space reporter Joey Roulette.
That is a thin justification and a slippery slope toward NASA's military mandate. The agency's excuse was total BS, according to Michael Baylor of NASASpaceflight.
Most of the US launch providers do it.
NASA did hold a press conference on March 29 to discuss the wet dress rehearsal, but so far it doesn't seem to have reversed its decision. NASA's decision to keep journalists in the dark about the Artemis is probably less likely to be about hiding a mistake and more about an overzealous government lawyer.
It is still a weird situation, Berger concluded.
More on the SLS drama.
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