SATURN V
"Only because the Saturn V isn’t around anymore."
It has 15% more thrust than the Saturn-5.
This rocket is built by the same Alabama rocket people that built the Saturn-5 'moon rocket.'
Posted on 04/03/2022 11:17:09 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Four lightning strikes hit the area around Launch Pad 39B, where NASA's first Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket is undergoing a three-day fueling test known as a "wet dress rehearsal" for its Artemis 1 mission to the moon later this year. The rocket is protected from lightning by three towers and a catenary wire structure to divert strikes to the ground away from the booster.
The first three lightning strikes were relatively low power events, NASA officials wrote in an update late Saturday. But the fourth strike, which hit "tower one" of the lightning protection system, was more powerful. The YouTube site Space Googlevesaire captured a clip of the lightning strike from NASA's live video stream of the fueling test.
Parsons said NASA upgraded Pad 39B's lightning protection system to include better shielding against strikes and better separate electrical current from launch hardware. Each of its towers is topped with a fiberglass mast and the catenary wires to divert lightning away from the rocket and its service structure, he added.
At the time of the lightning strikes on Saturday, the Artemis 1 SLS rocket's core stage and its Orion spacecraft were powered up, but the rocket's side-mounted solid rocket boosters and an interim cryogenic propulsion stage were off, according to a NASA update.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Looked like the service tower took a hit there. Never liked thunderstorms during loading.
Gee, no one told the lightning bolt it was supposed to hit the arrestor towers, not the service tower.
The one thing that you always take away from the Cape is that the guy who decided to put a launch base there knew nothing about rockets.
I am on record saying the SLS is a massive clustermuck.
It seems Zeus agrees
The lightning missed the lightning towers around the rocket...
Let me guess. 2 more $billion to repair site.
This program has been a money pit.
We sure miss Ben Franklin... (If you believe olde stories...)
The Cape is great from a trajectory standpoint, but the weather is an issue.
This is the largest rocket in the world.
Except, of course, its nearness to the equator and “farness” from civilization.
Only because the Saturn V isn’t around anymore.
SATURN V
"Only because the Saturn V isn’t around anymore."
It has 15% more thrust than the Saturn-5.
This rocket is built by the same Alabama rocket people that built the Saturn-5 'moon rocket.'
Next time ... Musk will have his revenge.
No, those people have all retired or died by now. I worked in Huntsville in 1973 and met many of the rocket boys.
Well, yeah, I suppose you could say Cocoa Beach is uncivilized...there is the trailer park over by the Port, and of course Lido’s and Cheaters....
SLS is not a “megarocket”. Its planned sea-level thrust is lower than Starship Super Heavy’s (9.2M < 14M lbf), but you don’t see the media calling Super Heavy a “megarocket”. The media hates Musk because he’s politically incorrect, and is of course pulling for the government’s solution, which is obsolete and will never support the necessary launch cadence.
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