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Artemis

NASA Tries To Second Guess A Looming Hurricane (Update)

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
September 24, 2022
NASA Tries To Second Guess A Looming Hurricane (Update)
Predicted storm conditions

Keith’s note: Earlier today NASA held a media telecon (the video feed of which went dead). During the briefing Tom Whitmeyer, Deputy Associate Administrator at NASA Headquarters gave some less than serious responses to questions regarding a large storm heading directly for Florida – and the multi-billion dollar Artemis/SLS asset. Either Whitmeyer is clueless, has a misplaced sense of humor, or has not had PAO media training yet. Or all of the above. Update: NASA has waved off the 27 Launch attempt.

24 Sep Update: NASA Waves Off Sept. 27 Launch And Prepares for Rollback

23 Sep post: Based on tweets by Eric Berger @SciGuySpace at Ars Technica:

“Tom Whitmeyer, deputy associate administrator at NASA Headquarters, doesn’t sound all that concerned about weather. “It is not even a named storm. It’s a tropical depression.”

“More from Whitmeyer on weather. My goodness. “I’m not from Florida. I’m from Washington D.C. The way we track weather there is we pick up the Washington Post and see if it’s going to rain today.”

“Final comment from NASA’s Whitmeyer, a deputy associate administrator mind you, on the weather. “I wish we were better at predicting weather absolutely five days in advance. And if I did, I would pretty much quit this job to go work for the weather bureau.”

Then a little sanity:

“The other point that Charlie Blackwell-Thompson and other NASA officials have made is that, while rollback does take three days, leaving it to the last minute would leave employees no time to prepare for a potential storm themselves.”

Later in the day NASA issued a blog post that suggests that they may roll back but, despite obvious strengthening storm tracks over warm water, they are still exerting efforts to keep the Tuesday launch option open.

“NASA is monitoring the forecast associated with the formation of a tropical depression in the Caribbean Sea while in parallel continuing to prepare for a potential launch opportunity on Tuesday, Sept. 27 during a 70-minute window that opens at 11:37 a.m. EDT.”

More: NASA Teams Monitoring Weather While Protecting Option for Artemis I Launch

All I can say is:

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

5 responses to “NASA Tries To Second Guess A Looming Hurricane (Update)”

  1. Chris says:
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    It appears as if NASA doesn’t want to roll back into VAB because they DON’T want to find problems.

    • Howard Wolowitz says:
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      Silly. These decisions are about evaluating a stack of risks and how they affect the objective of successfully launching this mission. Rolling back has its own risks as does staying on the pad. Knowing how much time you have to get better inputs before making decisions is what is important…not emotional snap decisions.

      Granted, NASA are not always the best at communicating their position. That’s a whole ‘nuther issue. But too many outlets that cover this beat know better and still go with the clickbait.

  2. Winner says:
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    Over $20 Billion, over a decade, “We aren’t afraid of no stinkin’ storm!!!!”

  3. Richard Brezinski says:
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    The comical line I’ve seen in more than one blog is “We aren’t going yet”.

  4. Skinny_Lu says:
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    Yes, that guy was not the best choice to discuss the rollback and being respectful of mother nature like any Floridian would… So, SLS is rolling back tonight. The good news is the range safety boxes in the rocket get new (charged) batteries and start a new 20 day clock. Hopefully the repaired, leaky connections hold….

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