NASA’s highly-anticipated Artemis I launch has been delayed, yet again. Eric Mack, freelance science and space journalist, joined Cheddar News to discuss the takeoff that is now scheduled for November.

NASA Again Delays Artemis I Launch

Nasa's highly anticipated Artemis one launch has been delayed. Yes. Again, due to complications from Hurricane Ian this time, the kickoff of the mission to bring astronauts back to the moon will take place between november 12th and november 27th. If all goes according to plan, of course, here to discuss the latest in the space race is ERIC Mack, freelance science and space journalist ERIC welcome back to the show. So what's going on here with Nasa's Artemis mission? Well, you know, this has been a launch that's over a decade in the making. So you know, I suppose what's a few more delays? There's been engine trouble, there's been a leak, there's been a hurricane and so the space launch system had to be rolled back to the garage. The very big garage down in florida and it's not gonna be out for about at least another month. So meanwhile, SpaceX and Nasa are on track to launch their crew five mission tomorrow. What's the significance of this mission? Um, you know what, I think the significance is that it's becoming routine to see astronauts sent to orbit on american made space X launch vehicles. Whereas since the end of the space shuttle program, Nasa had to rely on a Russian rocket for for quite a while. And so I think they're pretty happy given current world events to have an option based out of florida Again, eric, it seems that private companies are dominating the space race right now. Do you think Nasa will be able to stay competitive in this industry as the private sector. Certainly turning up the heat, I don't think that that Nasa views themselves as competing with the likes of SpaceX. In fact they've they've signed up SpaceX and their their Starship vehicle for uh some artiness missions in the future. And it could very well be and probably will be uh starship that actually sends these these astronauts to the surface of the moon later on this decade. So I mean I think there's been a move away starting in the last decade from Nasa actually constructing these rockets and spacecraft themselves and you know, working more with private companies like SpaceX. So I think we're actually seeing a transition here and and I should say the space launch system is kind of the end of an era bumping into the new era. So I do want to talk about these multiple delays of the Artemis launch. Do you think it's impacting Nasa's reputation at all? Uh Yeah, I mean sure, you know, how how can it not? You know, particularly because we also saw a lot of delays around the launch of the James webb space telescope which also finally got up into space this year. So yeah, I think it does. Um but I think they're they're trying to make this pivot to working more closely with with the commercial companies and you know, we we still have to wait to see if Starship SpaceX's Starship and some of these other private vehicles can actually make it to orbit because they haven't yet either. But you know, it certainly seems like in terms of what the next era of space travel is going to look like. It's probably going to be in the hands of these private companies. I have one more fun question before we go the startup spin launch, just catapulted payloads into the sky for the very first time. Eric, you know, this already, how does this work? What might the future of this technology look like moving forward? It's, it's it's centrifugal force and it is the craziest thing to see. Uh you know, this is in my home state of New Mexico and I drove by at once. So it's kind of like what is this thing rising out of the desert? But it's basically yeah, a gigantic um slingshot that spins a payload around incredibly fast and then it shoots out of kind of like a chimney in the middle of a desert at the at insane speeds. Yeah, the demonstration unit is here in New Mexico, a much larger one is going to be built in California to see if we can actually just kind of slingshot stuff from the surface to space. It's really cool, Very, very cool eric. Always great having you on the show, please come back soon eric Mack, freelance science and space journalist