Discussion
NASA targets Artemis II crewed moon mission for April 1 launch
abeppu: April 1 is an in interesting choice for a big event that will be news if it goes well and bigger news if it goes badly
jedberg: They don't really have a choice. The launch window is small and they either make it or they don't.
edgyquant: “As early as April 1” is a weird way to describe something that is two months behind schedule
StableAlkyne: Being a few months behind schedule is forgivable for human space flight.If a SpaceX Falcon blows up on the pad, that's one thing. It's expensive but they accept that risk to move faster. At least they gain knowledge of what failed, to do better next time.You can't apply that mentality once a human is piloting it however. That's how you get Columbia, Challenger, or Apollo 1.
AverageSavage: Operation: Sike! is a go! ;)
la3lma: Surely they are joking?
bcraven: As it's currently March, April seems very close to me. I didn't know there was a moon flight planned so this is a great headline to me.
bombcar: I didn't even know we were within years of putting people around the moon, so I was surprised!
echelon: What factors are there for the lunar launch window?It can't be weather, here, right? That's too far ahead.Is it perigee?If this window is missed, when is the next one?
hypeatei: "April fools, your space shuttle just disintegrated!"
throwawaymobule: Scott Manley does a roundup video every two or so weeks called 'deep space updates' that I suggest watching.The start is all rocket launches, which gives a good idea of how much is happening.
dylan604: Seeing how the last test at the beginning of Feb found hydrogen leaks, it does sound very early to me
tekla: Why? They fixed it.
dylan604: In a month is why. It seems if it was fixed that fast it was easy to find. If it was so easy to find, why was it not found. These are the types of questions that seem to make NASA push things further than just a month. So again, it seems fast to me
tekla: It feels fast to you because you don't know what happened, and you are asking questions that have been answered by NASA already in public.It was easy to find because they knew what valve was leaking.It was not found beforehand because they don't have the ability to do the tanking test without rolling it to the launch pad and its very hard to know how a system responds to liquid hydrogen.
