Artemis 1 29AUG@Cape Canaveral

That's a cool shot.

 

No, the LP Mast was fabricated at the Bellingham, WA plant where I worked. No site visits for me:-(
They had a Field Division which dealt with site installations, and NASA has their own specialty installation contractors besides.

That is a great photo of an LP Mast 'in action'.

.

 

Didn't get to dangle on a metal tower 30 stories up in lightning-prone Florida? I guess that isn't exactly a "loss", although full credit to those who do, hence the high status of being a "Pad Rat".

I just nabbed the picture while looking up a site that explained how the system works. I wasn't hanging out at the pad in a storm! Actually, it is frightening how many pictures they have of lightning strikes at the pad. Apparently what you put together works!

Now if you could do something about the woodpeckers and vultures...

 

Weird how the Flat Earth presents a round shape from whatever direction it is photographed. (as does every other large celestial object)

 

The edge-on shots don't come out very good, so they wait until they are face-on to get a nice pic.

 

you can do anything in a movie studio

 

Except remake Blazing Saddles.

 

Yea that might “woke” some people.

 

Meh...they could do it, but it would absolutely not be worth seeing.

 

It's twoooo! It's twooooooooo!

 

One move and the non binary minority gets it...

 

Watched a great video by Destin, the Smarter Every Day Youtuber, from a talk he gave at a symposium with many NASA policy makers and Engineers. Did you guys know it's going to take at LEAST 15 fueling rockets to be launched, prior to the main Artemis mission, using cryo fuels that we've never even done in-orbit fueling? The reasons why are a great example how a fear of negative feedback can create a disaster. Worth a watch.

 

Haven't gotten to that one yet but looking forward to it. I'm still skeptical that it will take that many launches but if so, they're still likely to be done in advance of the crew arriving.

 

Saw that. The most troubling thing he mentioned was human kind's total experience at cryogenic refueling in orbit.

None.

KISS is an engineering acronym for good reason.

Edit: odds on him ever being invited to speak to NASA again?

Edit again: this particular subtopic is the best opportunity ever for this beeb smilie...

 

I watched it. It was shocking. It will take at least that many launches with the current plan. Probably more. The lunar orbit thing seems worse to me. The way I understood it, if they miss the (very small) window leaving the surface of the moon, they will have to wait a week for the mothership to pass by again.

 

Well, I'm not a Rocket Scientist, so had to look up what Delta V was.....again, how did we get this far down the road without someone calling timeout? Destin does such a great job of being objective, and i think he did the best job a person could to not be judgemental about where we're at. But....you can tell he was baffled. I liked the graphic where he shows how many moon landings for Apollo, and how many for Artemis. And then the other graphic showing how many rockets to accomplish that.

 

Yeah that was a fantastic video. I've shared it around a bunch at my work. His "only positive feedback" graphic is incredibly impactful.

 

The Artemis 2 mission commander is a friend. They’ll get it figured out.