SLS or SOS? NASA is running out of time and money to launch Artemis

LAUNCH NOW PUSHED TO NOVEMBER 16

For now, NASA will leave it's behemoth rocket out on the pad ahead of the next launch attempt. But there's trouble approaching with storm Nicole.

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Hi! I am now FULL TIME Ellie in SPACE!
My channel started as a way to keep people up to date on the world of SpaceX's Starlink, the satellite internet service. The channel has grown to include the broader Elon Musk universe.

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[cagedraincloud]

SLS is like a bad candidate that won’t concede an election. They have no chance of winning but they press on anyway. #BadMath.

[islandpalm]

It was hit by reported 100 mph gusts. Won't they have to roll it back to VAB anyway for a top to bottom inspection?

[jonmarquez]

The SLS Rocket would make good addition to the rocket garden.

[mark_barrentine]

Another concern are the two SRBs. They have been stacked for TWO YEARS with a design of only one year. Tests have been conducted and they have been cleared through a mid December launch. Further tests will be required past this date if Artemis 1 is still on the pad by then.

[bigdan]

Great report Ellie! Keep up the good work! We thank you for what you do!

[charlespaluha]

I still think starship is going to do its orbital mission before SLS ever gets off the ground.

[eugenecbell]

Roll it back!
It is so valuable, we can’t afford for it to get any more broken.

[mannyherrera]

Well the saga continues! Thanks EL for the updates 🚀!

[gregorychaney]

Thanks for the update. Bummer but what can you do about the weather?

[StMyles]

🎶 You put your SLS in. You put SLS out. You put your SLS in. And you shake it all about 🎵🎶

[themwuzthedaze]

Hi Ellie. I lived in South Florida for nine years. Down there, folks are very alert to hurricane season, while Florida is also the lightning capital of the U.S. Folks in several mid-west states are alert to tornado season, and where I now live in northern California, the main possible destructive force of Nature is earthquakes. While there is no earthquake season, alert people prepare themselves by storing bottled water and battery powered lights against the possibility of these public services being knocked out by one; in the Midwest, smart folks dig storm shelters; while in Florida, people who own homes prepare themselves by buying hurricane shutters for their windows, and if they own equipment that sits in their yard or on their porch, make sure they have lightning rods on or near it. Wherever you live, it is wise to be alert to whatever Nature typically threatens you with. The NASA folks at Cape Canaveral must certainly be aware of the dangers from hurricanes, just as they are about lighting, since you'll notice lighting rods on all the tall equipment. When I was down there, I and the folks I knew started watching the hurricane reporting that was a regular feature of the news as soon as the season began, so I ask you: how can NASA be taken by surprise by tropical lows beginning to develop into tropical storms and the whole sequence the leads to hurricanes, when Cape Canaveral is only slightly less likely to be hit by one that threatens South Florida? Sure, the SLS may be able to withstand 84 mph winds, but they're gambling with the unpredictability inherent in all storms of them developing one way instead of the other. The next big blow could just as easily develop suddenly into a hurricane. Yes, a Category 1 starts at 74 mph., but it rises to 95 mph., which is already too much for the SLS. And a hurricane can develop into a Category 2 in just a day or two and then they're scr**ed because that tractor it rides on is very slow. It seems to me they're gambling with all the time, money, and effort that has already been poured into the SLS project. Frankly, this whole project feels doomed by bad karma. It is accrued in part from all the political graft involved in making sure the time-honored Big Industries that have spent zillions making sure that congressmen and senators from the states where they're located know where they're bread is buttered; and in part from the thinking of their designers and engineers being stuck in the thinking of the past, which is supported by the undeniable truth that for a long time, their thinking was the leading edge of many industries. But now there is a revolution in progress and those perspectives are outdated. Revolutions are always painful or at least uncomfortable, even when their outcome is ultimately for the best of everyone. It's possible that the SLS will launch successfully and I will be happy for everyone if it does, but I'll be surprised if it does. And how can it be a good thing to build very expensive, one use equipment? Elon nailed it quite some time ago now in making the example of aircraft, or any transportation device, that are thrown away after one use? Who but the insanely rich could afford to buy a new car every time they wanted to go to the store? His original example was aircraft, where he asked who could afford to fly if their ticket had to support that industry's need to build a new airliner after the current one had reached its destination? - or words to that effect. We've become so accustomed to hearing the word billions and now, trillions being bandied about that we've become numb to them, but since I'm 73 I remember when hearing that something cost even a few millions was jaw-dropping. Let's remember that those are taxpayer dollars coming out of your pocket and mine. This is one reason that Elon has insisted that reusability must be fundamental to making space flight a viable possibility, especially if we intend to escape LEO and actually create long-term bases on the Moon and, ultimately, self-sustaining cities on Mars before another civilization-ending asteroid or devastating solar flare hits our dear planet - which sadly, must happen eventually. Do we want our species to be switched off for good due to the short-sighted greed of a few corporate and government fatcats? We do, after all, pass through the Taurid meteor stream twice every year, folks - that's the one the dinosaur-ending one came from. I hope we've become more intelligent than they were. So if the SLS is destroyed, I'll be sad for the relative handful of workers who have devoted serious time and energy to their jobs in a sincere effort to get this beast off the ground, but overall...not too much. SpaceX and the many new young companies it's example has inspired seems like the wave of the future to me. Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away there...

[MichaelSmith-ilwm]

Good luck. Great adventures and opportunities regardless of what happens for Artemis…

[ThompPL]

Ellie, you might as well just take a one-week vaca near Titusville !
Ride some air boats at night and look for 'gator-eye-shine' near shores of Lake Jessup ?
Dine at The Black Hammock and pet their adorable little gators.
Visit Dixie Crossroads for their famous Rock Shrimp ! 🙃

[webdaddy]

Oh, wait - it's now November 16!
I love the title of this video.

[thomascharlton]

Don’t know what their criteria are for moving SLS. Likely too late if they’re not already underway.
As of Nov, 11 at 16:55 EST the Winds are from a direction of 040 degrees at 15 with gust to 21 knots. Only gonna get stronger from this point.

[ohiopat]

I watched the Falcon Heavy launch from Cocoa Beach. I guess I had a better view than you did. Had a good view of the launch and boosters landing.

[christalbert]

Uhh... knots are also used in aviation, not just naval and meteorology. It's one arc-minute on a map, 1/60th of a degree. When it was the days of paper maps working in knots made sense.

[sagecoach]

Thanks for the update. SLS launching seems to me to be a waste of time and money and it would be foolish to build another obsolete one if it did fly.

[MarcelHuguenin]

Hey Ellie, just want to let you know you're getting better with every video! I'll just watch you and the others from the Netherlands ;-)

[seangrogan]

Can't wait to watch it! It is amazing that "only" 75 mph winds are of concern on the ground, when Max Q will be around what... 1, 600 mph? And Orion will be going upwards of 24, 000 mph to reach the moon (atmosphere not withstanding). Great illustration of how finely tuned these engineering marvels are.