Message:So many times I heard this and knew it was posturing. Safety is relative. Space Flight is never safe. What the director says with a scrub is that he either knows they were not ready (from get-go) or something was shaken-broken by the move.
Why did they not stack at the pad? Probably because the solids are too large. Would take a pad redesign. The capsule is too large to lift. Could have just used Saturn V (all liquid) and did more three man flights. Would have been able to pick all the crew combinations for Firsts on surface (only articulated goal).
The Artemis design is too all-in-one, too ambitious. Too much: we got to get everything right. The VAB is a big prop. The more the 1960s stuff gets modded or repurposed, the more the idea is boondoggle to placate local and special interests. Probably changed everything so much (now) that Saturn can't be done again.
Thousand of parts from a thousand places any one of which can fail. Billion dollars times eighty is a whole lot of Space X missions. Not saying they won't fail. All will. But am saying manage failure and you will have a space program.
Every astronaut should know he might die. We don't launch them to kill them. But complicated adds too many firing room console on-lookers (like a certain Thiokol engineer) who every launch will say No-Go, and one time in a hundred will be right. Told you so!
National Aeronautical Scrub Administration. At least fire the director. We have lost all accountability.
Would be so bad if Chinese put first woman on the moon? One small step.
Yours,
IronRed
03-Sep-2022