RH200, ISRO’s versatile sounding rocket, has completed its 200th consecutive successful launch from Thumba, Thiruvananthapuram. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) called it a “historic moment” on Wednesday. Former President Ram Nath Kovind and ISRO chairman S Somanath were among those present.
RH200 successfully launched from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS). According to an ISRO statement, “Indian sounding rockets are used as privileged tools for the scientific community to carry out experiments on meteorology, astronomy, and similar branches of space physics.”
The sounding rocket platform has been used for scientific exploration of the Earth’s atmosphere in campaigns such as Equatorial ElectroJet (EEJ), Leonid Meteor Shower (LMS), Indian Middle Atmosphere Programme (IMAP), Monsoon Experiment (MONEX), Middle Atmosphere Dynamics (MIDAS), and Sooryagrahan-2010.
The Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) series were forerunners for ISRO’s heavier and more complex launch vehicles, and are still used for atmospheric and meteorological studies today, according to the national space agency headquartered here. “The 200th consecutive successful flight demonstrates Indian rocket scientists’ commitment to unrivalled reliability demonstrated over the years,” it said.
“The 200th consecutive successful flight demonstrates Indian rocket scientists’ commitment to unrivalled reliability demonstrated over the years,” it said.
Elon Musk has decided to change several employee benefits and eliminate several perks that Twitter employees had grown accustomed to in order to turn the company profitable. It should be noted that Twitter has never been profitable since its inception.
These perks include not only several benefits that are common in tech companies around the world but also some key benefits that were implemented in the midst of the pandemic to help Twitter employees complete their duties.
Some of the most significant perks cut include training and development, finishing school, daycare facilities for staff children, and quarterly team activities. Other benefits include all allowances and activities related to employee wellness and productivity, as well as home internet access.
While getting rid of facilities like home internet makes sense given that Twitter is putting a stop to the practice of working from home, industry insiders say getting rid of training and development, especially for managers, is a little strange.
“Allowances will be re-evaluated over time and may be reinstated if the company’s financial situation improves,” read an internal memo distributed to the remaining employees.
Musk previously claimed that Twitter’s 7400-7500 employees were fed for $4 million per day. However, a number of company employees, including the team in charge of the meals served to employees at Twitter offices, disputed that claim.
Since assuming control of Twitter, Musk has fired roughly half of the 7500 people directly employed by the social media platform. In addition, he fired approximately 4000 contractual content moderators who worked for Twitter.
“Allowances will be re-evaluated over time and may be reinstated if the company’s financial situation improves,” read an internal memo distributed to the remaining employees.
In addition, another 1200-1500 people resigned from Twitter after Musk issued an ultimatum, warning employees that the culture at Twitter would have to undergo a massive overhaul and that employees who wanted to be a part of the new direction that Twitter would take, also known as Twitter 2.0, should prepare themselves for longer working hours and a more fast-paced, hardcore environment.
Elon Musk has since announced that he has finished firing Twitter employees and is now looking for engineers and salespeople for the ad sales team. He has also encouraged employees to refer people who are qualified for the position.
Simmons played in Philadelphia for the first time since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2021.
On Tuesday night, Ben Simmons, a member of the Brooklyn Nets, made his eagerly anticipated return to Philadelphia to take on the 76ers. Since Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference Semifinals, when Simmons notoriously missed a dunk opportunity while playing for the Sixers, Simmons hadn’t played in Philadelphia. This game was his first game there since that time. After that game, Simmons never returned to the court for the Sixers as he asked for a trade during the offseason, which was eventually granted when he was sent to Brooklyn in February.
The season after the trade, the Nets played in Philadelphia, but Simmons was injured. Despite this, he was still the target of a great deal of criticism from Philadelphia supporters. But this time, Simmons was ready to perform, and the audience was ready for him. As soon when Simmons emerged from warmups, he was greeted with jeers, and those jeers only grew louder as spectators found their seats and the arena filled up.
Due to the absence of the Sixers’ three top players, Tyrese Maxey, James Harden, and Joel Embiid, this clash lacked a lot of energy. However, it didn’t appear to bother the crowd too much because they made sure to get energised when Simmons was presented.
Ben Simmons gets introduced in the Nets starting lineup 👀
All of Simmons’ early touches in the match were received with jeers.
The reaction was perhaps a little more muted than anticipated, but the jeers didn’t stop during the pregame ceremonies. All of Simmons’ early touches in the match were received with jeers.
In the last week or two, Simmons has been playing some of his best basketball of the year, and he’ll try to keep it up in a hostile environment.
The return of Kyrie Irving is bad news for the Nets, according to history.
The potential of the Durant-Irving-Simmons three will never live up to expectations.
After serving his ban, Kyrie Irving is back. Ben Simmons has produced three games in a row that live up to his prior brilliance. The transcendent scoring machine Kevin Durant, who averages more over 30 points per game and is now free of the head coach he attempted to oust over the summer, is still Kevin Durant.
The Brooklyn Nets are feeling positive, especially with the possibility to defeat a depleted Philadelphia 76ers team Tuesday night and win three straight games for the first time this season.
Don’t be duped by any of it. This Nets team just has disappointment and controversy to offer.
If Simmons has another strong performance upon his return to Philadelphia, the fleeting optimism that is a Brooklyn Nets specialty will undoubtedly spread. Or if Irving has a breakout game after returning from an eight-game suspension for endorsing an anti-Semitic film after only 26 minutes of action.
Avoid being drawn in.
Even though the illusion is more convincing, the farce is still there: This talented group is a timebomb, not a contender for the championship. They lack substance and just have drama. They are the shimmer without much potential for the bling.
They could pull off an unexpected result, as with everything in sports. Against all chances and precedent, the Durant-Irving-Simmons trio would come together and enjoy a regular-season parade of triumphs that led to a playoff run deserving of the anticipation that has been building in Brooklyn ever since Kyrie and KD linked up.
But according to history, common sense, and a number of NBA league insiders, the norm is more of the same: drama, the underdog doing fine, and an inevitable grotesque meltdown that serves as a reminder of who the underdog really was all along.
For a championship run, star power is a need, but chemistry is the secret ingredient that must go with it. One of the reasons the Golden State Warriors have prevailed year after year, with or without Kevin Durant, is that the locker room is full of real leaders, true believers, and real unity. At least, it was until Draymond Green hit teammate Jordan Poole in the face earlier this season.
This most recent Los Angeles Lakers squad illustrates the other side of the coin: talent without teamwork may result in blame without hope.
But when compared to this Nets team, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis are a TED Talk on teamwork and chemistry.
On Monday, NASA’s unmanned Orion spacecraft successfully accomplished its closest fly-by of the moon. The spacecraft was 81 miles above the lunar surface and travelling at 5,102 miles per hour, according to a tweet from James Free, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development.
The fourth orbital trajectory adjustment burn of the Orion spacecraft had been successfully accomplished on the sixth day of the Artemis I mission. The tweet stated: “Fly-by finished! NASA This morning, at a speed of 5,102 mph and 81 miles above the lunar surface, Orion successfully accomplished its closest fly-by of the Moon. We performed an outward-powered fly-by burn before the fly-by, accelerating at a pace of more than 580 mph. Look at it here:
Given that the Moon is four times larger than the World, one social media user who saw James Free’s image said, “It’s amazing how small the earth looks in comparison to the Moon… “Wait for a second”
“The moon is bigger than this dot when I look at it from the earth,” I said. The size of Earth exceeds that of the moon. There’s a problem here,” read a second comment.
“With how near it came to the moon, it would make sense to utilise a wide-angle lens,” a third user observed. This would then fill the frame with so much space that the Earth would appear tiny. It doesn’t imply that a person could have seen it as being so small. Others praised the image as being “amazing.”
At 6:44 AM UTC, the spaceship Orion, which is empty of the crew, finished its powered fly-by (12:14 PM IST). At 6:57 UTC, it passed our globe at a height of 81 miles (12:27 P.M. IST). Prior to the fire, the spacecraft was travelling at a speed of 2,128 miles per hour. After the burn, that speed rose to 5,102 miles per hour.
Following the outbound fly-by, Orion passed over the Apollo 11 landing site at Tranquility Base at a distance of about 1,400 miles at 7:37 A.M. UTC (01:07 P.M. IST), according to NASA. It then passed by the Apollo 12 site at a height of about 7,700 miles before flying over the Apollo 14 site at a height of about 6,000 miles.
Last significant step before lunar orbit: On its journey to a record-breaking lunar orbit, NASA’s Orion spacecraft arrived at the moon on Monday, whirling around the rear side and passing within 80 miles (128 km) of the surface.
The crew capsule and its three test dummies were on the far side of the moon when the close approach took place. Flight controllers in Houston could not learn whether the crucial engine firing went smoothly until the spacecraft emerged from behind the moon, more than 232,000 miles (375,000 km) from Earth, as a result of the half-hour contact blackout.
The moon became larger in the video that was transmitted earlier that morning as the spacecraft travelled its final few thousand miles after taking out last Wednesday from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center atop the most potent rocket that NASA has ever produced.
Flight director Zeb Scoville stated, “This is one of those days that you’ve been dreaming about and talking about for a long, long time.”
Since NASA’s Apollo programme 50 years ago, no spacecraft has reached the moon. This marks a significant accomplishment for the $4.1 billion test flight that started last Wednesday. The first three lunar landings by humanity, Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 14, were all passed by Orion on its flight path.
On its journey to a record-breaking lunar orbit, NASA’s Orion spacecraft arrived at the moon on Monday, whirling around the rear side and passing within 80 miles (128 km) of the surface.
Orion had to slingshot around the moon in order to gain enough speed to enter the wide, uneven lunar orbit. As the capsule swung out from behind the moon, onboard cameras transmitted back a picture of Earth — a blue dot surrounded by blackness. If everything goes according to plan, the capsule will be in that orbit by Friday after another engine firing.
The record for the greatest distance travelled by an astronaut-designed spacecraft, set by Apollo 13 in 1970 at almost 250,000 miles (400,000 km), will be broken by Orion the following weekend. And it will continue to go, getting up to 270,000 miles from Earth at its farthest next Monday (433,000 km).
Before returning to Earth, the capsule will spend almost a week in lunar orbit. A Pacific splashdown is planned for Dec 11.
Orion lacks a lunar lander; a touchdown won’t occur until NASA astronauts use SpaceX’s Starship to try a lunar landing in 2025. But as early as 2024, astronauts will board the Orion spacecraft for a trip around the moon.
Managers at NASA were thrilled with the mission’s progress. In its premiere, the Space Launch System rocket behaved remarkably well, officials told reporters late last week.
However, the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center sustained more damage than anticipated from the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket. The 8.8 million pounds (4 million kg) of liftoff thrust produced such a powerful force that it tore the elevator’s blast doors off.
Orion lacks a lunar lander; a touchdown won’t occur until NASA astronauts use SpaceX’s Starship to try a lunar landing in 2025. Before that, as early as 2024 will see astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft for a trip around the moon.
Managers at NASA were thrilled with the mission’s progress. In its premiere, the Space Launch System rocket behaved remarkably well, officials told reporters late last week.
At the Kennedy Space Center launch pad, the 322-foot rocket did more harm than anticipated. The blast doors of the elevator were torn off by the 8.8 million pounds of liftoff thrust’s tremendous energy.
One of the original “Power Rangers,” actor and mixed martial artist Jason David Frank, has passed away. He was 49. According to a statement from his representative, Mr. Frank passed away in Texas. His most well-known performance was as Tommy Oliver, the green power ranger, in the 1993 children’s series. According to the site, he later changed into the White Power Ranger and was appointed as the new commander of the team. Because of how well-liked the show was, numerous spin-off movies, action figures, and other toys were produced.
“Please respect his family’s and friends’ privacy as they deal with the terrible loss of such a beautiful person during this difficult time. He was incredibly close to his followers, friends, and family. He will be sorely missed, “According to TMZ, his representative stated in the statement.
Due to his tremendous popularity, Mr. Frank appeared in 123 episodes of the series as one of the main cast members.
Although some sources suggested Mr. Frank committed suicide, the cause of death wasn’t immediately disclosed, according to The Guardian.
Social media has been inundated with condolences from Power Rangers fans.
In a flashback photo with Mr. Frank, Walter E. Jones, who played his Power Rangers co-star, wrote: “Can’t believe it, Jason David Frank is gone. The loss of another member of our unique family breaks my heart.”
The iconic 90s series’ official Twitter account published a statement and wrote, “The passing of Jason David Frank has deeply grieved the whole Ranger Nation. Over the years, JDF made countless admirers happy and will be sadly missed. May the Power always keep him safe.”
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fans flooded social media with condolences after learning of Frank’s passing.
The Iron Sheik, a professional wrestler, was one of those who sent condolences, tweeting: “RIP JDF YOU THE REAL LEGEND… I will always love you.
The actor who originated the role of the black power ranger, Walter Emanuel Jones, expressed his sorrow over the passing of a member of his “special family” in a post on Instagram.
From 2008 through 2010, Mr. Frank competed in professional combat after receiving training in numerous sports, including Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Judo, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Indonesia’s NUSA DUA and Ukraine’s KYIV — President Biden said it was “unlikely” that a missile fired from Russia caused an explosion in eastern Poland, but that the evidence was “preliminary” and that Poland’s partners would support a complete inquiry. Western leaders are on high alert after an explosion in Poland kills 2 people
President Joe Biden said Tuesday’s deadly missile assault on Polish soil was most likely not launched by Russia, as international leaders from three continents hurried to gather answers about an event that could prove pivotal in Russia’s nine-month war with Ukraine.
“We’re going to figure out exactly what happened,” Biden told reporters after an impromptu meeting on the margins of the G-20 conference in Bali, Indonesia, with other G-7 and NATO leaders. He said that “preliminary intelligence” indicates that the missile, which fell near Poland’s border with Ukraine, was shot from Russia. The strike, which killed at least two individuals, was blamed on Moscow, according to Ukrainian officials.
Given the enormous stakes, officials were careful in their pronouncements as details remained scarce. A Russian attack on NATO territory could elicit a military response from the United States and other NATO members. Following the initial reports, there was a flurry of phone calls between world leaders and emergency meetings to discuss how to respond.
On Tuesday, November 15, 2022, police officers assemble outside a grain storage in Przewodow, eastern Poland, where the Polish Foreign Ministry reported that a Russian-made missile had fallen and killed two persons.
According to a NATO spokesperson, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will convene an emergency meeting of alliance ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the event.
According to a statement, Poland’s foreign ministry confirmed that the missile was Russian-made and summoned the Russian ambassador “with a demand for an immediate detailed explanation.”
During the battle, both Russian and Ukrainian forces employed Russian-made munitions, with Ukraine deploying Russian-made missiles as part of its air defence system.
Speaking to reporters following an emergency meeting with G7 and NATO leaders on the sidelines of the G20 conference, US President Joe Biden said preliminary intelligence suggested the missile was launched from within Russia, but he couldn’t say definitively until the inquiry was completed.
“We agreed to help Poland with its probe into the incident… And I’m going to make sure we determine out precisely what happened,” Biden added, adding that the leaders had expressed their condolences for the deaths of two people. “Then, as we investigate and proceed, we’ll decide on our next step as a group.” There was complete agreement.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, who spoke with Biden, was less certain, stating the missile was “probably” Russian-made but cautioning, “We do not have clear evidence of who launched the missile at this time.” Ukraine’s military also employs several Russian-made missiles.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday’s deadly missile assault on Polish soil was most likely not launched by Russia, as international leaders from three continents hurried to gather answers about an event that could prove pivotal in Russia’s nine-month war with Ukraine.
Moscow and Kyiv both pointed fingers at one another.
In a video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “Russian missiles hit Poland,” calling it a “attack on collective security” and a “major escalation.” The Russian Foreign Ministry refuted the allegation, tweeting, “Russian hardware has launched NO strikes in the area.”
Meanwhile, social media speculation — fed in part by pro-Russian bots — spread that the accident in Poland was caused by a Ukrainian air-defense missile sent to counter Russian weapons. However, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba railed against that charge, calling it a “conspiracy theory” in a tweet.
“What they’ve done has been completely unconscionable,” Biden said after the emergency summit in Bali. “And, at a time when the world is gathering at the G-20 to advocate de-escalation, Russia escalates in Ukraine.”
For more than a month, senior US officials have addressed the potential of the Ukraine crisis spilling over into neighbouring countries. According to a summary of a U.S. meeting with NATO officials in October obtained by POLITICO, those officials, in collaboration with European leaders, have conducted military planning exercises to simulate such a scenario. The Pentagon did not respond quickly to the readout.
After an emergency cabinet meeting in Poland, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that the government has resolved to “increase the combat preparedness of selected branches of the Polish Armed Forces, with particular emphasis on airspace monitoring.”
Soon after the initial allegations on Tuesday, Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez (D-NJ) stated that if Moscow purposefully targeted territory in Poland, it might trigger Article 5 of the NATO charter. If one NATO member is attacked, the provision requires other NATO members to contribute to the response, including the use of armed action.
“We’re looking into what happened and how it happened.” It’s obviously critical to determine if the trip was an accident, an overflight, or deliberate. “I hope it wasn’t on purpose,” Menendez remarked in an interview.
“I hope the Russians promptly apologise for the loss of life and clarify that it was not intended.” “Obviously, if it was purposeful, it has all kinds of ramifications,” he added. “It clearly broadens the conflict and, of course, calls into question Article 5.”
Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, was asked about the United States’ security responsibilities. “We have stated unequivocally that we will defend every inch of NATO territory,” he said.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del. ), a close supporter of Biden, claimed news of the explosion was announced at the end of Senate Democrats’ monthly lunch on Tuesday, calling it a “shocking” discovery.
“I believe it is vital that the Russians rapidly admit this was a horrible mistake, apologise for it, and pay compensation, otherwise this will quickly become a difficult issue,” Coons continued.
Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, issued a statement late Tuesday expressing their support for Poland and NATO members.
European officials are likewise concerned, and they blame the Russians. “It is horrible to witness a desperate regime striking Ukraine’s essential infrastructure and hitting allied territory with victims,” said a senior European diplomat who requested anonymity to discuss a fluid situation. “If true, this is yet another escalation by Russia against NATO.” Poland is a valuable ally. NATO’s solidarity and support for Poland is unwavering.”
The strikes come only one day before the next virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a group of 50 countries that meets monthly to coordinate the next steps in arming and supporting Ukraine.
The Biden administration requested $37.7 billion in Ukraine funding from Congress on Tuesday as part of a supplemental package, with $21.7 billion going directly to weaponry for Kyiv and restocking US warehouses after eight months of supplying ammunition and equipment to Ukraine. Another $7 billion will be allocated to the White House to draw down current US weaponry and ammunition inventories in order to promptly deploy them to Ukraine.
At least three Twitter employees who survived the major layoffs that slashed the company’s personnel in half were dismissed after publicly criticising their new leader on the network. Eric Frohnhoefer is one of them, and he responded to Elon Musk’s post apologising for Twitter’s slowness in several countries.
“The app is performing over 1000 badly batched RPCsonly to render the home timeline!” Musk penned a letter. Frohnhoefer said that Musk’s assertion is “false” after six years of working on Twitter for Android.
The multi-company executive then asked him what the correct number was and what he had done to fix Twitter for Android, which had been “super slow.” He responded with the work his team had done for the app and listed a few reasons why it was slow: “First, it’s bloated with features that get little usage. Second, we have accumulated years of tech debt as we have traded velocity and features over perf. Third, we spend a lot of time waiting for network responses.”
Their conversation continued in multiple threads, and when one person suggested that Frohnhoefer should have notified his boss quietly, he responded, “Maybe he should ask questions discreetly. Maybe via Slack or email.” After that, Musk informed everyone on Twitter that Fronhoefer had been fired.
According to Forbes, the former Twitter app engineer received no notification from Twitter regarding his firing and that his laptop “simply shut off.” He went on to say that “[n]o one trusts anyone within the firm anymore,” making it difficult to perform. According to the former Twitter employee, “people were more open and thought they could critique before Musk took control, and now that’s definitely not the case.”
At least three Twitter employees who survived the major layoffs that slashed the company’s personnel in half were dismissed after publicly criticising their new leader on the network.
According to Bloomberg, another engineer named Ben Leib was also sacked. Musk’s apology tweet was also met with a response from Leib, who said that as a former “tech head for timelines infrastructure at Twitter,” their new owner had no idea what he was talking about. Then there’s Sasha Solomon, a business tech lead who responded to Musk’s tweet with her own and later claimed that she, too, had been sacked.
Twitter has seen significant adjustments since Elon Musk officially purchased the company. He quickly fired its senior executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, and ordered mass layoffs that resulted in the dismissal of roughly half of the social network’s staff. Twitter also debuted the $8-per-month Blue membership, which gave everyone who could afford it access to quick verification. However, making the blue checkmark easy to achieve resulted in an increase in impersonation and legitimate-looking fraudulent accounts on the platform.
Since Musk took over late last month, Twitter has been in disarray. Many employees are still furious that Musk sacked half of the company’s 7,000-plus employees, including the majority of senior management, within a week of his $44 billion buyout.
The billionaire also quickly altered corporate culture. While it was not previously common for employees to publicly challenge leadership at Twitter, employees frequently spoke out on internal Slack channels and via email before Musk arrived, sometimes posting criticism or concerns to the entire company.
According to current and former employees, Musk’s changes have resulted in a lack of communication internally about who is in charge and what the company’s priorities are.
The changes have also raised concerns that Twitter, based in San Francisco, is vulnerable to product failures or technical outages. Twitter implemented another coding freeze on Monday, halting app product updates, with no explanation given to employees.
Employee firings have also sparked a barrage of jokes emphasising Musk’s termination streak since taking over Twitter in October. Elon Musk has fired more than half of the company’s personnel, and Twitter began terminating contractual employees last weekend. He is believed to have terminated the services of over 4,400 contractual employees. The whole contractual workforce numbered 5,500 people.
On Tuesday, China successfully launched a new Yaogan-34 series remote sensing satellite into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 9:38 a.m. (Beijing Time).
On November 15, 2022, a Long March-4C rocket carrying a new Yaogan-34 series remote sensing satellite blasts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. (Photo courtesy of Wang Jiangbo/Xinhua)
The Yaogan-34 03 satellite was successfully launched into orbit by a Long March-4C rocket.
The Yaogan-34 03 satellite was successfully launched into orbit by a Long March-4C rocket.
This remote sensing satellite will be used in a variety of applications, including land resource surveying, urban planning, crop yield estimation, and disaster prevention and mitigation.
NASA managers examined the threat posed by hurricane-damaged insulation on the Artemis moon rocket on Monday and certified the $4.1 billion booster for launch “as is” on Wednesday. The launch would begin a long-delayed mission to propel an unpiloted Orion crew capsule around the moon and back.
Engineers found that even if more strips of the caulk-like “RTV” insulation peel away during the Space Launch System rocket’s ascent to space, the material is not huge or dense enough to do substantial damage even if a piece hits one of the two lower stages or strap-on boosters.
As the countdown neared its end, NASA’s mission management team unanimously agreed to proceed with a third launch attempt at 1:04 a.m. EST Wednesday, the start of a two-hour window.
“I inquired if there were any dissenting perspectives, and there were none,” said Mike Sarafin, mission manager for Artemis 1. “That flight logic was accepted by us. So our intention to launch on the 16th remains unchanged.”
The 322-foot-tall Space Launch System rocket is the linchpin of NASA’s Artemis moon program, capable of boosting Orion moonships and other components directly into lunar orbit for rendezvous with a planned space station and lunar lander.
However, since the spacecraft was wheeled out to launch pad 39B for the first time in March, more than 240 days ago, it has been plagued with hydrogen fuel leaks and other malfunctions that have disrupted multiple fueling tests and two launch attempts.
Engineers brought the SLS back out to the pad on November 3 to prepare for another launch attempt, despite the formation of a subtropical storm in the Caribbean, after devising a “kinder, gentler” strategy for fueling the rocket to minimise leaking.
NASA managers examined the threat posed by hurricane-damaged insulation on the Artemis moon rocket on Monday and certified the $4.1 billion booster for launch “as is” on Wednesday.
That storm eventually intensified into Hurricane Nicole, but it was too late to bring the rocket back to the safety of its assembly building. Instead, it was exposed to the elements while riding out hurricane-force winds and rain on the pad.
Surprisingly, neither the SLS rocket nor the launch pad sustained serious damage. Engineers discovered, however, that a 10-foot section of RTV insulation covering an indentation between the Orion crew capsule and the base of its protective nose cone had delaminated and been pulled away in smaller pieces by the high winds.
That section of the rocket cannot be accessed from the launch pad, necessitating a thorough engineering analysis to determine what threat, if any, might exist if any additional RTV detached during flight.
“The risk with RTV is that a tiny or large piece may come off, reach the correct location in the airflow, drop down and strike the vehicle and do damage,” Jim Free, NASA’s director of exploration systems, told CBS News in an interview.
“This could result in the vehicle being destroyed or degraded in some way. And we have to run all of those to the ground before we can proceed.”
Some of the concerns were similar to those raised prior to the launch of the shuttle Columbia in 2003, when a big piece of foam insulation fell off its external tank and killed the orbiter’s left wing. In that situation, the danger was not appropriately assessed during the pre-flight analysis.
“I believe it would be ridiculous for me to claim (Columbia) isn’t on everyone’s radar,” Free said. “The transportation study we’re performing is based on what we learned from the space shuttle.”
“I believe it would be ridiculous for me to claim (Columbia) isn’t on everyone’s radar,” Free said. “The transportation study we’re performing is based on what we learned from the space shuttle.”
Engineers conducted a thorough analysis, keeping Columbia’s lessons in mind, and concluded that SLS insulation was not a credible threat. With forecasters predicting a 90 percent chance of good weather, the launch may well come down to whether previous fueling issues with the massive rocket have been resolved.
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