Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images
NASA should let the private sector lead the way on space exploration tech.
The most powerful rocket the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has ever built is sitting on its Florida launchpad. Going nowhere. Again.
The Space Launch System rocket was scheduled to take off this Sunday, kicking off NASA’s most ambitious crewed mission in half a century. Known as Artemis II, the mission is intended to carry four astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian, on a long, looping flight around the moon. If successful, this will be the first time astronauts have left low-Earth orbit since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. Advocates for manned spaceflight hope that the mission will be a turning point for the troubled space agency, marking NASA’s return to bold human exploration. But a preflight fueling test on Monday uncovered leaks and other technical problems. Artemis II is now delayed for at least a month, possibly longer.
This recent launch letdown comes during a somber season at NASA. Last week marked the 40th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. In some ways, NASA has never fully recovered from that self-inflicted tragedy. The bloated SLS program is one symptom of the agency’s post-Challenger malaise.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (paywall)
______________________
James B. Meigs is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a City Journal contributing editor.
Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images