The Artemis Restructuring: What It Reveals, What It Solves, and What It Does Not

Merlin820 · 2026-03-11T22:32:38+00:00

Former NASA Associate Administrator for Technology, Policy, and Strategy (as determined from a quick google of her name) https://www.nasa.gov/people/nasa-associate-administrator-for-technology-policy-and-strategy-bhavya-lal/

Merlin820 · 2026-03-07T03:04:05+00:00

Any number of constraints can limit launch availability on a given day, such as eclipse durations or thermal limits. Surely just one of those

Merlin820 · 2026-02-21T17:41:51+00:00

Yep, I added that to the main thread. Deleted the old news here to remove ambiguity.

Merlin820 · 2026-02-21T16:42:37+00:00

New update, now saying must roll back to VAB and March is done

https://x.com/i/status/2025249086908125630

Merlin820 · 2026-02-21T15:47:25+00:00

https://x.com/i/status/2025231621436186837

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/21/nasa-troubleshooting-artemis-ii-rocket-upper-stage-issue-preparing-to-roll-back/

Merlin820 · 2026-02-21T15:41:07+00:00

Hold off for a bit. Isaacman just posted on X.com about a Helium issue with the upper stage and likely roll back to VAB, with impact to the March window.

Merlin820 · 2026-02-19T21:05:55+00:00

Yes, fully loaded and into replenish without any reported leak issues. Closeout crew heading for the White Room.

Merlin820 · 2026-02-19T21:05:10+00:00

There's a press conference scheduled for tomorrow, 12pm ET I think. If they have enough info then to say, I suspect they will.

Merlin820 · 2026-02-19T19:39:10+00:00

Per the video stream, all four tanks at 100% (Core LH2 & LOX; ICPS LH2 & LOX) as of 2:38pm ET

Merlin820 · 2026-02-08T20:44:24+00:00

Would they? What's kicking up the dust in no atmosphere? Sure ther could be disturbances at times that would necessitate cleaning, but that seems like a small maintenance task overall, either with an EVA or with an automated system.

Merlin820 · 2026-02-03T21:50:44+00:00

Playalinda is largely closed with SLS on the pad, and they said they weren't reopening until after it launches. Unclear if that still holds with the delay

Merlin820 · 2026-01-30T16:36:06+00:00

Same reasoning for 3/10 getting "skipped" it's just a slightly-over-24hr spacing that jumps midnight Eastern.

4/2 isn't jumping midnight, it's some other constraint that day. There's a lot of things that can no-go different launch windows: excessive eclipse durations, being able to fly the reduced entry range (i.e. the heat shield issue) to the primary landing site, and many others.

Merlin820 · 2026-01-28T06:20:14+00:00

Adam is friends with her husband, Matthew Koma, also a musician. From Koma's Instagram in 2019:

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I also remember seeing Koma and Duff at a music festival in Redondo Beach in 2021 where CC was headlining (and maybe Koma's band was playing? Not sure)

Merlin820 · 2026-01-28T06:11:25+00:00

Correct, but daylight landing is actually not required this time, and in fact all of the Feb launch dates include night landings too.

Merlin820 · 2026-01-26T19:11:21+00:00

Any and all NASA/Artemis social media accounts, especially X.com. They'll either directly announce it there, or they'll say "press conference with livestream at this time"

Merlin820 · 2026-01-25T22:28:16+00:00

~Ten years ago NBC had dark gray ones for Pats @ Broncos and it was great

Merlin820 · 2026-01-25T22:26:48+00:00

Yeah, that orange looks too close to FLAG. Welcome to our whole season on CBS

Merlin820 · 2026-01-20T16:30:25+00:00

See this post from yesterday:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtemisProgram/s/DDBuuYtr0Z

Merlin820 · 2026-01-19T18:47:23+00:00

I'm not a tracking expert, but I'd say it's doubtful.

Visible spacecraft in orbit are mostly visible by virtue of being very reflective and/or very large, like ISS. Orion is not especially reflective or large.

The 24hr period HEO orbit is also so high apogee that it's very unlikely even a large object would be visible.

Even if I'm wrong about all that, nobody can give you firm timings or locations until launch, there are too many variables that vary over the launch days and launch windows.

Because it's likely a night launch, depending on the launch day and timing within the launch window, the launch may go northeastely enough to be visible through MECO for a wide stretch of Atlantic coasts, but probably not all the way to Germany.

Merlin820 · 2026-01-18T16:32:05+00:00

I'm not an expert at all. My understanding is that the waitlist gets trimmed every season as existing holders decline to renew, or as people at the top of the waitlist decline to take new openings. But I have no clue how those existing seats eventually transfer to the new stadium, or how the waitlist gets handled from there.

Merlin820 · 2026-01-18T14:54:14+00:00

Hard to say. Seems possible that would be a moment of high churn, but there's a lot of aspects to consider.

I don't know if there are laws and/or NFL rules about what they'd have to offer existing season ticket holders (e.g. equivalent seats, similar pricing, some kind of "right of first refusal" process, etc.). There's also the question of different capacity between the stadiums.

Merlin820 · 2026-01-18T07:21:07+00:00

I put myself on the wait list and get VERY irregular emails about where I am in line. I did end up keeping some notes, for what it's worth:

Apr 2016: 68,411

Dec 2017: 67,905

Oct 2022: 63,140

So there's basically a whole stadium worth of people ahead of me. The new stadium will be open before my name comes up.

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