NASA May Have Just Made a $4.1B Mistake – If This Bet Turns Bad, It’s Going to Get Ugly

With a tropical system bearing down on the Sunshine State, NASA has decided to leave the $4.1 billion Artemis 1 rocket on the Cape Canaveral launch pad. This decision has left some worried that the anticipated launch of…

IJR SyndicatedNov 10, 20223 min read

Sponsored

Unfortunately, the mission has been delayed twice since August, once by a

fuel leak

and the other by

Hurricane Ian

back in September.

The concern now is whether NASA made the right decision to keep the highly anticipated and expensive craft exposed to the oncoming Tropical Storm Nicole.

According to the technology site ArsTechnica, NASA engineer John Blevins said Artemis can handle wind gusts up to 85 mph, though sustained winds may be another issue entirely.

NASA weighed the risk of keeping the rocket where it is mostly because of the possible wear and tear of transporting the massive rocket.

Artemis I would have to be rolled back four miles to its hangar and NASA has a budget for such rollouts; not to mention it takes a couple of days to safely set up the rocket on the pad, according to ArsTechnica.

According to ABC News, Nicole was expected to hit Florida’s east coast Wednesday night as a Category 1 hurricane, with sustained winds up to 95 mph. As Nicole graduates to Category 1 status, NASA runs the risk of underestimating the storm’s strength, causing potential damage to this important piece of the agency’s plans.

Weather forecasters have been issuing warnings:

Loading post…

As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, the acting head of the National Hurricane Center, Michael Brennan, stated Wednesday that, “we’re expecting the storm to go on and become a hurricane later today or tonight and make landfall as a hurricane along the east-central Florida coast somewhere in the vicinity from Palm Beach up to the Treasure Coast late tonight or early Thursday.”

Parts of the cost are already experiencing power outages and large sections of the Florida east coast are under evacuation orders.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.