Free Republic

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...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is weighing the risk of adding astronauts to the first flight of its new megarocket, designed to eventually send crews to Mars. The space agency's human exploration chief said Friday that his boss and the Trump administration asked for the feasibility study. The objective is to see what it would take to speed up a manned mission; under the current plan, astronauts wouldn't climb aboard until 2021— at best. The Space Launch System, known as SLS, will be the most powerful rocket when it flies.