Ag83 said:

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nortex97 said:

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The only part of that thing that isn't a leaking plumbing nightmare are the solid rocket boosters, though their vectoring nozzles are a risk with the huge volume of toxic fuel used to move them; at least Nasa didn't just pencil whip that they were not too old this time.

Really hope that mission/crew goes through the mission safely.

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I could be wrong but I thought they changed to electric TVC for SLS rather than the hydrazine system used in shuttle.

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For the bole boosters for flight five and up I think. They are using the older ones for this, showed the nasa folks loading them this weekend.

this upcoming Artemis is the manned shot for a trip around the moon tight?

nortex97 said:

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Ag83 said:

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nortex97 said:

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The only part of that thing that isn't a leaking plumbing nightmare are the solid rocket boosters, though their vectoring nozzles are a risk with the huge volume of toxic fuel used to move them; at least Nasa didn't just pencil whip that they were not too old this time.

Really hope that mission/crew goes through the mission safely.

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I could be wrong but I thought they changed to electric TVC for SLS rather than the hydrazine system used in shuttle.

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For the bole boosters for flight five and up I think. They are using the older ones for this, showed the nasa folks loading them this weekend.

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Ah, OK; thanks.

AgBQ-00 said:

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this upcoming Artemis is the manned shot for a trip around the moon tight?

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Yes

will25u said:

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SpaceX has acquired xAI, forming one of the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engines on (and off) Earth → https://t.co/3ODfcYnqfg pic.twitter.com/el40rCUBGe

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 2, 2026

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Wow...

And xAI acquired x.com last year. Isn't this begging for anti-trust action against him when a commie takes office?

Why? There's no competition issues here. They're all in unrelated markets.

I've still not seen any credible analyses as to how AI in space is going to be cheaper than earth-based data centers, but give Musk some credit as he seems to want to go 'all in' on a huge amount of them, and even to produce them from the moon. From anti-trust I don't think so as there aren't any real competitors trying to build a space-AI-social media outfit. He certainly doesn't lack ambition:

Anything less than K2 is feeble https://t.co/wZjg0NfzZE

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2026

Quote:

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A K2 civilization, or Type II civilization on the Kardashev scale, is capable of harnessing the total energy output of its star, often envisioned as using structures like Dyson spheres to capture that energy. This type of civilization can manipulate and utilize energy on a stellar scale, allowing for advanced technologies and possibly interstellar travel.

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Artemis moved out per Isaacman;

Quote:

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With the conclusion of the wet dress rehearsal today, we are moving off the February launch window and targeting March for the earliest possible launch of Artemis II.

With more than three years between SLS launches, we fully anticipated encountering challenges. That is precisely why we conduct a wet dress rehearsal. These tests are designed to surface issues before flight and set up launch day with the highest probability of success.

During the test, teams worked through a liquid hydrogen leak at a core stage interface during tanking, which required pauses to warm hardware and adjust propellant flow. All core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage tanks were successfully filled, and teams conducted a terminal countdown to about T-5 minutes before the ground launch sequencer halted operations due to an increased leak rate. Additional factors included extended Orion closeout work, intermittent ground audio dropouts, and cold-weather impacts to some cameras, along with the successful demonstration of updated Orion closeout purge procedures to support safe crew operations.

As always, safety remains our top priority, for our astronauts, our workforce, our systems, and the public. As noted above, we will only launch when we believe we are as ready to undertake this historic mission.

This is just the beginning. It marks the start of an Artemis program that will evolve to support repeated and affordable missions to the Moon, in line with President Trump's national space policy. Getting this mission right means returning to the Moon to stay and a future to Artemis 100 and beyond.

I want to thank the talented workforce at NASA, along with our industry and international partners, who are working tirelessly on this effort. The team will fully review the data, troubleshoot each issue encountered during WDR, make the necessary repairs, and return to testing. We expect to conduct an additional wet dress rehearsal and then target the March window.

We will continue to keep the public and the media informed as readiness progresses.

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Good, because that nights part means…moving away from SLS.

With the conclusion of the wet dress rehearsal today, we are moving off the February launch window and targeting March for the earliest possible launch of Artemis II.

With more than three years between SLS launches, we fully anticipated encountering challenges. That is precisely…

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) February 3, 2026

Really the whole WDR was a predictable disaster it sounds like.

Quote:

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NASA appeared to get past the problem Monday evening and fully loaded the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of propellant.
With fueling complete, managers sent a closeout crew to the launch pad around 6:00 pm EST (23:00 UTC) to close the hatch to the Orion spacecraft sitting atop the SLS rocket. The closeout team will help the Artemis II astronauts into the Orion capsule on launch day, but the crew was not part of the practice countdown Monday night.
The closeout crew took longer than anticipated to close and secure the hatch to the Orion spacecraft. A valve associated with Orion's hatch pressurization inadvertently vented, according to NASA, requiring the closeout crew to retorque the valve. The launch team dealt with several other glitches, including audio dropouts on ground communication loops and camera problems believed to be caused by recent cold weather in Central Florida.
Finally, with the closeout crew a safe distance away from the rocket, the launch team gave approval to begin the final 10 minutes of the countdown shortly after midnight Tuesday. The objective was to stop the countdown clock 33 seconds prior to launch, about the same time the rocket would take control of the countdown during a real launch attempt.

Instead, the clock stopped at T-minus 5 minutes and 15 seconds. NASA said the countdown terminated "due to a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate." The countdown ended before the rocket switched to internal power and fully pressurized its four propellant tanks. The test also concluded before the rocket activated its auxiliary power units to run the core stage's four main engines through a preflight steering check, all milestones engineers hoped to cross off their checklist.
Launch controllers began work to drain the SLS rocket's propellant tanks after calling an end to the countdown. With the test incomplete, NASA managers quickly decided to hold off on launching the Artemis II mission to allow time for ground teams to "fully review data from the test, mitigate each issue, and return to testing ahead of setting an official target launch date."

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What a mess.

Artemis 2 delayed until at least March due to leaks discovered during the wet dress rehearsal.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasa-delays-artemis-2-moon-launch-to-march-after-encountering-issues-during-fueling-test

Just guessing, but I don't think Musk is focused on capital efficiency when it comes to compute deployment. I think he wants to be first and if he has to burn some extra money he'll do it. I think he sees the permitting process for data centers to be a slow process and even slower than it had been going forward.

Get one FCC approval and you get the authorization to build and deploy 100 GW of compute, equivalent of 100 Colossus 2 data centers. 100 kW is the estimate per satellite, 1 ton per satellite, which is roughly the same mass as a Starlink V2 Full. 10,000 satellites per 1 GW, 100 satellites per launch is 100 launches. If you get one Starship from Texas and one from Florida launching every day without refurbishment it's 50 days to deploy a Colossus 2.

He can either raise the money or he's going to take the combined entity public through a merger with Tesla and he thinks he can fund the compute necessary out of the combined earnings of Starlink and Cybercab near term and Optimus in ~5 years. Just a full deployment of earnings into expansion.

nortex97 said:

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Really the whole WDR was a predictable disaster it sounds like.

Quote:

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NASA appeared to get past the problem Monday evening and fully loaded the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of propellant.
With fueling complete, managers sent a closeout crew to the launch pad around 6:00 pm EST (23:00 UTC) to close the hatch to the Orion spacecraft sitting atop the SLS rocket. The closeout team will help the Artemis II astronauts into the Orion capsule on launch day, but the crew was not part of the practice countdown Monday night.
The closeout crew took longer than anticipated to close and secure the hatch to the Orion spacecraft. A valve associated with Orion's hatch pressurization inadvertently vented, according to NASA, requiring the closeout crew to retorque the valve. The launch team dealt with several other glitches, including audio dropouts on ground communication loops and camera problems believed to be caused by recent cold weather in Central Florida.
Finally, with the closeout crew a safe distance away from the rocket, the launch team gave approval to begin the final 10 minutes of the countdown shortly after midnight Tuesday. The objective was to stop the countdown clock 33 seconds prior to launch, about the same time the rocket would take control of the countdown during a real launch attempt.

Instead, the clock stopped at T-minus 5 minutes and 15 seconds. NASA said the countdown terminated "due to a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate." The countdown ended before the rocket switched to internal power and fully pressurized its four propellant tanks. The test also concluded before the rocket activated its auxiliary power units to run the core stage's four main engines through a preflight steering check, all milestones engineers hoped to cross off their checklist.
Launch controllers began work to drain the SLS rocket's propellant tanks after calling an end to the countdown. With the test incomplete, NASA managers quickly decided to hold off on launching the Artemis II mission to allow time for ground teams to "fully review data from the test, mitigate each issue, and return to testing ahead of setting an official target launch date."

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What a mess.

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Anybody get Apollo 1 flashbacks from the ground communication audio loop dropouts?

txags92 said:

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nortex97 said:

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Really the whole WDR was a predictable disaster it sounds like.

Quote:

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NASA appeared to get past the problem Monday evening and fully loaded the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of propellant.
With fueling complete, managers sent a closeout crew to the launch pad around 6:00 pm EST (23:00 UTC) to close the hatch to the Orion spacecraft sitting atop the SLS rocket. The closeout team will help the Artemis II astronauts into the Orion capsule on launch day, but the crew was not part of the practice countdown Monday night.
The closeout crew took longer than anticipated to close and secure the hatch to the Orion spacecraft. A valve associated with Orion's hatch pressurization inadvertently vented, according to NASA, requiring the closeout crew to retorque the valve. The launch team dealt with several other glitches, including audio dropouts on ground communication loops and camera problems believed to be caused by recent cold weather in Central Florida.
Finally, with the closeout crew a safe distance away from the rocket, the launch team gave approval to begin the final 10 minutes of the countdown shortly after midnight Tuesday. The objective was to stop the countdown clock 33 seconds prior to launch, about the same time the rocket would take control of the countdown during a real launch attempt.

Instead, the clock stopped at T-minus 5 minutes and 15 seconds. NASA said the countdown terminated "due to a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate." The countdown ended before the rocket switched to internal power and fully pressurized its four propellant tanks. The test also concluded before the rocket activated its auxiliary power units to run the core stage's four main engines through a preflight steering check, all milestones engineers hoped to cross off their checklist.
Launch controllers began work to drain the SLS rocket's propellant tanks after calling an end to the countdown. With the test incomplete, NASA managers quickly decided to hold off on launching the Artemis II mission to allow time for ground teams to "fully review data from the test, mitigate each issue, and return to testing ahead of setting an official target launch date."

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What a mess.

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Anybody get Apollo 1 flashbacks from the ground communication audio loop dropouts?

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First thing I thought of.

When Artemis II lifts off the majority of the thrust will come from solid motors which include components with flight histories dating to the 1980's.
One cylinder flew on STS-5 in 1982, when the crew members of Artemis II were in elementary school, or pre-school. pic.twitter.com/3IjxkjZozB

— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) February 2, 2026

PJYoung said:

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When Artemis II lifts off the majority of the thrust will come from solid motors which include components with flight histories dating to the 1980's.
One cylinder flew on STS-5 in 1982, when the crew members of Artemis II were in elementary school, or pre-school. pic.twitter.com/3IjxkjZozB

— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) February 2, 2026

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What a Frankenstein's monster. If it succeeds, it's a testament to the technology of that era, I guess.

The flip sides to that is that re-use is the only 'good' thing about this thing, even if these are to be the final re-uses. Imagine how much this crap woulda cost if they'd actually…had to design/build everything brand new?

To HPH6203 above about the data centers, that all flies way over my head. My only feedback is that the "V3" Starlinks are really big. (None have launched; have to go up in Starship due to size). I assume that is why he talks about a 'mass driver' from a lunar base to put them up, after (partially) manufacturing them there.

Elon Musk on 𝕏 Spaces tonight:

"The biggest opportunity on the moon is to make solar cells and radiators, and then, you're manufacturing on the moon anything that weighs a lot, chips maybe still come from Earth, they weigh very little. And then you can use a mass driver to put… pic.twitter.com/trJzlqAG8O

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) December 31, 2025

But sometimes I get a bit concerned he is going down a Howard Hughes path.

Not a good look when Amy isn't a fan of the program.

txags92 said:

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nortex97 said:

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Really the whole WDR was a predictable disaster it sounds like.

Quote:

---

NASA appeared to get past the problem Monday evening and fully loaded the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) rocket with more than 750,000 gallons of propellant.
With fueling complete, managers sent a closeout crew to the launch pad around 6:00 pm EST (23:00 UTC) to close the hatch to the Orion spacecraft sitting atop the SLS rocket. The closeout team will help the Artemis II astronauts into the Orion capsule on launch day, but the crew was not part of the practice countdown Monday night.
The closeout crew took longer than anticipated to close and secure the hatch to the Orion spacecraft. A valve associated with Orion's hatch pressurization inadvertently vented, according to NASA, requiring the closeout crew to retorque the valve. The launch team dealt with several other glitches, including audio dropouts on ground communication loops and camera problems believed to be caused by recent cold weather in Central Florida.
Finally, with the closeout crew a safe distance away from the rocket, the launch team gave approval to begin the final 10 minutes of the countdown shortly after midnight Tuesday. The objective was to stop the countdown clock 33 seconds prior to launch, about the same time the rocket would take control of the countdown during a real launch attempt.

Instead, the clock stopped at T-minus 5 minutes and 15 seconds. NASA said the countdown terminated "due to a spike in the liquid hydrogen leak rate." The countdown ended before the rocket switched to internal power and fully pressurized its four propellant tanks. The test also concluded before the rocket activated its auxiliary power units to run the core stage's four main engines through a preflight steering check, all milestones engineers hoped to cross off their checklist.
Launch controllers began work to drain the SLS rocket's propellant tanks after calling an end to the countdown. With the test incomplete, NASA managers quickly decided to hold off on launching the Artemis II mission to allow time for ground teams to "fully review data from the test, mitigate each issue, and return to testing ahead of setting an official target launch date."

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What a mess.

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Anybody get Apollo 1 flashbacks from the ground communication audio loop dropouts?

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I didn't get the Apollo 1 feels since those comms issues were with the crew on board from Ground to Vehicle. It was the astronauts grumbling about how can they expect to talk to controllers from the moon when they can't even talk across the launch site.

But Hydrogen leaks? I get that hydrogen's favorite thing in the whole world to do is to leak because of the small molecular size of H2, but they've been using LH2 since Apollo on 2nd and 3rd stages. This is all Shuttle hardware, and though they did struggle with occasional leaks on the RS-25's they're now 2 for two with launch window missing H2 leaks.

Senate Launch System jobs rocket continues to be a boondoggle looking for a mission to fit.

My guess is heat rejection is easier and cheaper in space, but running a big computer server in space has to still be expensive

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Why? There's no competition issues here. They're all in unrelated markets.

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What about the AI datacenter market?

I am not saying there should be anti-trust action against SpaceX/xAI, but it seems this would open himself up to the type of administration that would demand that a company like SpaceX, which must adhere to export/control laws should also hire asylees and refugees with questionable legal status.

Burdizzo said:

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My guess is heat rejection is easier and cheaper in space, but running a big computer server in space has to still be expensive

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Meh. It worked for the Mycroft Holmes IV.

My tinfoil hat thought of the day:

Musk is probably trying to colonize the moon and/or mars outside the purview of earthly govts, much like euros colonized america before there were any relevant govts in north america.

No govt is going to get there in at least the next 5 or 6 years, probably never.

Who?mikejones! said:

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My tinfoil hat though of the day:

Musk is probably trying to colonize the moon and/or mars outside the purview of earthly govts, much like euros colonized america before there were any relevant govts in north america.

No govt is going to get there in at least the next 5 or 6 years, probably never.

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I think he is trying to maximize the value of Spacex for the IPO because doing all the things he wants to do are going to take a huge amount of cash to build the number of starships he is going to need. Getting that shot of upfront investment will fund building the ships he needs to achieve all the other goals.

He's spoken openly about off world colonies that are self sustaining choosing their own form of government. I think that approach necessarily requires thinking beyond the scope of Earth-bound governments.

Yea, ive heard those which is what leads me to my tin foil hat stuff. He appears, to me, to be walking a line to please govts here but also plotting to establish self rule colonies where he decides to go.

It will be easy for him if hes the only one who can actually get there

My point being that it's not a tin foil hat theory when the intent is laid out in plain English.

Make no mistake some future democrats or eu types would announce they have a duty to take Muslims and Haitians etc.

Mr.Milkshake said:

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Artemis sounds like a disaster in waiting.

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this... Elon at least uses the "school of hard knocks" by sending his rockets up time and time again until he gets it right. NASA wanting this to go off perfect day 1... what could go wrong?

I believe that's with the solar panels completely unfolded. Mass per satellite for the V3 is 2000kg, so roughly 3 times the mass of the V2 mini (twice the size of the previously planned V2 Full Size I used in my post). Was just using the Starlink satellites as a point of comparison for packing efficiency of mass, could just use payload capacity to LEO as a general metric. Might end up being a fair bit worse for the the compute satellites, who knows, they do need to have a radiator unfolded roughly perpendicular to the solar panels.

Article

Quote:

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Thankfully, there were some prior news releases and filings, which flesh out V3 details. An important one, for example, is that for every upcoming Starship launch, it will be possible to put 60 V3 satellites into orbit. "That's more than 20 times the capacity added with every V2 Mini launch on Falcon 9," says SpaceX. Moreover, each new V3 satellite boasts 1,000 Gbps of download and 200 Gbps of upload bandwidth, making them better than 10x faster than V2 models.

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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Not a good look when Amy isn't a fan of the program.

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She's really good. I like her, the occasional vocal fry notwithstanding.

Who?mikejones! said:

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My tinfoil hat thought of the day:

Musk is probably trying to colonize the moon and/or mars outside the purview of earthly govts, much like euros colonized america before there were any relevant govts in north america.

No govt is going to get there in at least the next 5 or 6 years, probably never.

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And more power to him. I hope he manages to get outside of government oversight/control on the moon or mars.

Who?mikejones! said:

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Yea, ive heard those which is what leads me to my tin foil hat stuff. He appears, to me, to be walking a line to please govts here but also plotting to establish self rule colonies where he decides to go.

It will be easy for him if hes the only one who can actually get there

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He can be prevented from launching. So he has to tow the line until his mars city is self-sustaining.

Mr.Milkshake said:

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Artemis sounds like a disaster in waiting.

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No kidding. I don't think I would want to be on the Artemis 2 crew.

PJYoung said:

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When Artemis II lifts off the majority of the thrust will come from solid motors which include components with flight histories dating to the 1980's.
One cylinder flew on STS-5 in 1982, when the crew members of Artemis II were in elementary school, or pre-school. pic.twitter.com/3IjxkjZozB

— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) February 2, 2026

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Geez. Some of that hardware is 40 years old. Seems like I remember them having enough old shuttle parts for one more launch after this mission, or maybe this is it.

What are the plans once they run out?

I know Rocketdyne says they can build more RS25s and get further increased performance.

When shuttle retired they could operate, via improvements/enhancement, at104% rated thrust. Today they run at 110%. Supposedly they can do even better today. But those engines are still OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. They were designed from day 1 to be reusable as the shuttle was a reusable vehicle... But we're just going to dump them in the ocean.

The SRBs are fished out of the ocean and reused. But they're pretty simple to build as is.

The external tank is not reused and never was.