The massive rocket will take off at 1pm GMT today from Cape Canaveral. I'm reminded of the time in November 2008 when we went to the Tikki Bar on Coco Beach and watched the last night time launch of a shuttle, which was STS-126, Endeavour. A fantastic, brilliant, awesome experience. All the Yanks yelling U-S-A, U-S-A. Unforgettable!
I’m fascinated by space travel but can’t quite get to grips with simply repeating, for test purposes, flights which were fairly regular and successful, 50-odd years ago.
There is that aspect too, Fatti. I believe the project was due to ‘fly’ back in 2016 so gawd knows how much it has cost to keep the project ‘live’ in the last few years.
You can watch it live on Youtube. The countdown is stopped at the moment because of an engine cooling problem, but is expected to resume shortly. The window for launch is from 1330 to 1530 BST.
If the launch is postponed today, there are further windows on the 2nd and 5th of September.
// gawd knows how much it has cost to keep the project ‘live’ in the last few years. //
the launch itself will cost $4bn; by the time the project reaches its moon landing goal in 2025, it will have cost $93bn. it's a big sum of cash, but what would you have NASA do with it other than space exploration and research? divided among the citizens of earth, it would represent about £10 each......