https://www.foxnews.com/us/nasa-sets-launch-dates-return-moon-giant-new-rocket
On Wednesday, the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, NASA announced that it’s targeting the end of August for the launch of its giant, new moon rocket.
NASA will attempt the more than month-long lunar test flight with three mannequins but no astronauts as early as Aug. 29. There are also two launch dates on Sept. 2 or Sept. 5.
I’m grabbing a beer and watching American Mediocrity at its best!
I was all excited until that. Oh come on! Send me!
Wonder why it takes a month now? Wasn’t it 3 or 4 days last time? No people on board sounds pretty lame.
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Super stoked!!!
Why?
Already did it, several times. Nothing there but rock & dust. Same stuff you can find on the planet.
Jobs program I guess. Wasteful.
Yep you’re right what we need is $40 billion more of midnight basketball…
Jesus, I didn’t think you could rat f*ck a return to the moon project, but that is how you would do it. Might as well just splash an unmanned probe like Russia did in 1966 with Luna 9.
I guess NONE of this is going to happen.
On 11 December 2017, US President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, which directed NASA to return to the Moon with a crewed mission, for “long-term exploration and use” and missions to other planets. On 26 March 2019, Vice President Mike Pence formally announced that the mission will include the first female lunar astronaut. The Artemis program has the goal of returning to the Moon with new launch systems.
I guess with Stanley Kubrick gone they’ll have to use CGI this time.
Two guys and one gal in a spamcan together or a month, what could possibly go wrong? At least on the space station there’s enough workroom people can get a break from each other when needed…
Still shoulda been te three most qualified regardless of demographics. Space is STILL hard and showboating with publicity stunts only gets people killed.
Don’t worry, they are only sending mannequins. I don’t think they will get each other pregnant.
That’s this stage–historically we USUALLY test capsules with crash-test dummies and/or animals first before we strap in human test-subjects. Prove the spamcan with dummies and monkeys first, then “captive” testing in orbit where they can emergency divert to either ISS or reentry if needed, THEN reach out further.
Even that was done in stages on Apollo:
*Prove spacecraft fit for manned flight at all. (Apollo 7)
*Prove reliability for moon-and-back flight time (Apollo 8)
*Local testing of orbiter and lander components and docking systems and procedures (Apollo 9)
*Full dress rehearsal, prove separation, rejoin and lander handling in lunar orbit (Apollo 10)
*GAME DAY! (Apollo 11)
…So another shitty reboot?
I surprised some of y’all can even get out of bed in the morning.
Kinda the point I was trying to make. 53 years later and here we are at phase 1.
Crotchety goats would bitch if their ice cream were cold.
The long term objective is to establish a FOB in orbit around the moon, and use it as a new playground to test equipment.
We COULD just dust off the provenSaturn V design… except that then we have to reinvent the infrastructure to build it and move the stages to Canaveral, and rebuild the “tribal knowledge” from those days. AND then we have the problem about components no longer being made, technologies to BUILD components no longer existing…
What I’d do for planning large-scale lunar colonization would be designate landing sites for supplies, and then start crashing S-IVB equivalents loaded with materiel into them for prepositioning. Back in the old days, “crash the third stage into the moon” was the preferred disposal method, so might as well get some use out of it… frankly, I dunno why they didn’t just ride that stage all the way to lunar orbit and separate there if it had that kinda reach. Hell, if you set it up right you could have those stages designed to accommodate prefab inflatable dividers to turn them into habitat modules once pumped dry…
The program will initially use leftover shuttle components until they are expended. (First 9 flights from what I understand, per today’s SRB test fire live stream). Then a revised rocket design will come about.
That said, we HAVE to move on to NERVA or other more advanced tech if we’re going to Mars or beyond–the “one and done” chemical-fueled booster as we know it is equivalent to a Roman slave-galley in the sea of space. Works for getting around the Med/Euro Coast of the Earth-Moon local area, but we need to get up to at least a Viking longship, more likely caravel or cog, by comparison venturing across the ocean of interplanetary space.