No option! NASA rolls back $23B rocket while SpaceX's rapid testing...Starship fly 1st, why not?

Corporate executives and consumers have in recent years adopted a new view of products, and we're heading to maximum size. As Americans, we prefer large servings, oversized clothes, big cars, big houses, and big rockets. However, big's not always a good thing, and typically NASA's big rocket is facing a big problem. On September 26th, NASA announced that mission managers decided after days of deliberation to move the SLS from Launch Complex 39B back to the VAB as a precaution given the approach of what is now Hurricane Ian on Florida. The storm is forecast to approach the west coast of the Florida peninsula by the middle of the week as a major hurricane, with some tracks taking it closer to the Kennedy Space Center on Florida's east coast. NASA said in a brief statement that managers made the rollback decision based on the latest weather predictions associated with Hurricane Ian, after additional data gathered overnight did not show improving expected conditions for the Kennedy Space Center area. Doing so would both protect the rocket and allow employees to make their own preparations for the storm, it added. The rollback began at about 11pm eastern on September 26th, which had the vehicle back in the VAB by the morning of September 27th ahead of the storm. The decision was the latest in a series of setbacks for the 330-foot-tall rocket, the most powerful ever built for NASA and the linchpin in the agency's Artemis Moon program. Back on September 24th, NASA announced that it would not proceed with the next launch opportunity on September 27th, citing the threat posed by then-tropical storm Ian. However, it delayed a decision on the rollback by a day to September 25th, then again to September 26th as the storm headed north more slowly than previously forecasted. NASA delayed its decision to further evaluate forecasts and determine if a rollback was necessary. Agency officials made clear at a September 23rd briefing that their plan A was to keep the rocket at the pad, allowing for launch opportunities on September 27th and October 2nd. At that briefing, when Ian was still in unnamed tropical depression, they argued that forecasts showed winds not exceeding the peak of 74 knots, or 137 kilometers per hour, which the vehicle was rated for at the pad. However, they said they were also working on a plan B rollback if needed, doing some preparations in parallel with those for a launch. That included, over the weekend, moving the crawler transporter used to carry the mobile launch platform out to the pad to be in position if a rollback was needed. Rolling the SLS back to the pad rolls out an Artemis 1 launch during the current launch period, which closes on October 4th. The next launch period opens on October 17th and runs through the 31st, although with no launch opportunities on the 24th through the 26th, and October 28th because of other mission constraints. NASA didn't give a new launch date for the mission when it announced the rollback. However, launching in late October may be challenging depending on the amount of time spent in the VAB, where technicians are likely to perform work such as replacing batteries on the SLS flight termination system. Once it rolls back to the pad, the SLS would be ready for another launch attempt in about a week and a half. If Artemis 1 does not launch in October, the next launch period is from November 12th to the 27th. Notably, this timeline, accidentally or not, coincides with the latest Starship launch schedule that SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk updated a few days ago. Musk eyed November for the first Starship orbital flight test. Late next month maybe, but November seems highly likely. In other words, the battle of mega rockets continues. Currently, two Super Heavy rocket boosters are actively being tested and worked on at Starbase, which are Booster 7 and Booster 8. Musk believes that SpaceX will have two pairs of orbital class Starships and Super Heavy boosters, which are B7 and S24, and B8 and S25, ready for orbital flight by then, potentially enabling a rapid return to flight after the first attempt. However, with the new update from NASA, I'm not so sure the Starship will be able to take off according to its schedule even if it's ready, because as we've said over and over again, NASA and the government still want SLS to get off the ground first. But putting the battle of the two rockets aside for a moment, for the first time in history, a spacecraft from Earth has crashed into an asteroid to test a way to save our planet from extinction. The spacecraft, NASA's Double Asteroid Rendezvous Test, or DART probe, slammed into a small asteroid 11 million kilometers from Earth on September 26th in what the U.S. Space Agency has billed as the world's first planetary defense test. The goal is to change the orbit of the space rock, called Dimorphos, around its larger asteroid parent, Didymos, enough to prove humanity could deflect a dangerous asteroid if one was headed for Earth. That's something the dinosaurs wished they could have done 65 million years ago when the massive Chicxulub asteroid slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula, ushering in their extinction. The dinosaurs didn't have a space program to help them, but we do. So, DART represents important progress in understanding potential hazards in the future and how to protect our planet from potential impacts. Katherine Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and senior climate advisor, said before the crash. The golf cart-sized DART spacecraft slammed into Dimorphos at 7.14 pm, while flying at a whopping 22,500 kilometers per hour. The spacecraft wasn't large as probes go, but NASA hoped that its 600 kilograms would be enough to move the 163-meter-wide Dimorphos a bit faster in its orbit around its parent. Despite the on-target crash, tensions were running high here at DART's Mission Control Center at JHUAPL as the spacecraft sped towards its destruction. Much of DART's last four hours were automated, with the spacecraft's navigation system locking on to Dimorphos in the final hour of its approach. DART's main camera beamed a photo to Earth every second until the feed went black as the spacecraft crashed into the asteroid. It's nerve-wracking, said Andy Cheng, chief scientist for planetary defense at JHUAPL, who came up with the DART mission's concept in 2011. The $313 million DART mission launched on As DART closed in on Dimorphos, the asteroid transformed from a mysterious bright dot into a detailed landscape of boulders, crags, and shadowed terrain. Then, right on time, the live feed from DART went black and flight controllers inside DART's Mission Operations Center jumped for joy and traded hugs and high-fives in a triumphant celebration. DART Hit Its Asteroid Bullseye After all that, the DART mission is the first demonstration of what NASA calls a kinetic impactor for planetary defense, crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid to change its orbit. It's a basic method to protect the Earth if a potentially dangerous asteroid were spotted five or ten years before a prospective impact. As Tom Statler, NASA's DART program scientist, said, we are changing the motion of a natural celestial body in space. Humanity has never done that before. This is stuff of science fiction books and really corny episodes of Star Trek from when I was a kid, and now, it's real. And that's about it for today's episode. Thank you so much for watching, and if you enjoy what my team and I are doing, you can become a patron through our Patreon link in the description below. Otherwise, as always, this is Kevin with Great SpaceX, and my team and I will see you next time.