The Apollo moon landing program was one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century. But its era ended, replaced by the space shuttle. Not a substitute good, but treated as such. I can't honestly say that the shuttle could entirely take over for the Saturn V - it simply didn't have the delta-V to achieve the same missions. However, the shuttle did offer some amazing capabilities itself, without which we would be far worse off. But, it too ran its course. And now we've gotten to the Space Launch System (SLS). Many years and billions of dollars over budget, the SLS and the Orion capsule that will house astronauts going back to the Moon finally launched last night.
An incredible nighttime launch proved NASA's perseverance against adversity. This year alone, it had failed full wet dress rehearsals and had to stand down from launch attempts due to hydrogen leaks (a notoriously finicky particle that caused scrubbed many launches of the shuttle as well, nothing new here). Even the weather tried to get in the way - they evacuated from Hurricane Ian and got hit by Nicole a week before the launch attempt. And yet they fought on.
I wish I had been able to be there for this new step in America's spaceflight capabilities. Even watching at home, on YouTube, at almost two in the morning, I couldn't help but feel such pride...
It was a gorgeous launch - congratulations to NASA and all the people who worked so hard to get it to happen.
Image from NASA
Image from NASA
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