NASA left the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at the launch site during Hurricane Nicole. The rocket suffered minor damage and NASA still plans to launch it for the first time on Wednesday. It is dangerous to leave a missile uncovered on the Florida coast during a hurricane.
NASA left the precious new moon rocket exposed on the launch pad in Florida as Hurricane Nicole battered the state with strong winds. The Space Launch System, or SLS, has been 17 years — and an estimated $50 billion — in the making. NASA designed it to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972 and build a new permanent base on the lunar surface. The SLS hasn’t flown yet. It has suffered setbacks all year from technical issues to weather, and now its launch is being delayed again — from Monday, Nov. 14, to Wednesday, Nov. 16 — as NASA deals with “minor damage” from the hurricane. One of the engine rain covers was torn, an umbilical cord between the rocket and the Orion spacecraft came out of place, and some sealing material was damaged around the spacecraft. The Orion spacecraft descends atop the SLS in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 20, 2021. NASA/Frank Michaux “Right now, there’s nothing stopping us from getting to the 16th,” Jim Free, associate administrator at NASA, said during a briefing on Friday. But it’s unusual for NASA to leave such a valuable rocket out on the launch pad in the middle of a hurricane. There was no guarantee that winds or flooding would not exceed the missile’s design limits. AccuWeather forecasters warned before the storm that there was a 60 percent chance of wind speeds exceeding those limits. “This entire situation raises serious questions about NASA’s processes for weather risk mitigation and preparation based on available forecasts,” said Jonathan Porter, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.
NASA dropped the rocket with a storm on the horizon
Satellite imagery shows Tropical Storm Nicole on November 10, 2022. NOAA GOES-East NASA dropped the rocket from its Vehicle Assembly Sheltered Building (VAB) at the launch site on November 4, as the cyclone formed in the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, forecasts did not indicate that the storm would become strong enough to overcome NASA’s safety restrictions for the rocket. The story continues “I think if we had known the night before we started that it was going to be a hurricane, we probably would have stayed in the VAB,” Free said. As Nicole closed in, the prognosis looked worse. But it takes several days to schedule and execute a VAB reset. By then, the winds would be too strong to safely spend nine hours rolling the rocket back into the building. This is already a stress on the rocket hardware. Add strong winds and NASA is at risk of serious damage. “We couldn’t go back to the VAB and be safe,” Free said. As it made landfall on Thursday, Nicole hit the SLS with strong winds. Meters recorded wind gusts of up to 100 mph near the top of the launch site. None of them exceeded the rocket’s design limits, according to Free. People walk through a closed and damaged boardwalk after Hurricane Nicole in Vero Beach, Florida, November 10, 2022.Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters “It’s important to point out that wind strength increases exponentially, not linearly, so small increases in wind can lead to significant increases in damage potential,” Porter said. Free said NASA officials spent hours assessing and debating the risks of leaving the rocket at the launch site, rather than returning it to the VAB. In the end, it looks like the risk paid off. Read the original article on Business Insider
