“We are not where we want to be”: NASA leaders’

eye significant delay for Artemis I launch

By: Angela Fritz
Source: The CNN

Date: Date: September 3, 2022

NASA’s second try to launch its mega moon rocket ended in another scrub with mission leaders
unsure on when the next attempt will take place. The space agency tried to launch the Space Launch
System rocket and Orion spacecraft on Saturday, but a large hydrogen leak was discovered hours
before lift-off. "We are not where we want to be," Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for
exploration systems development, said after the scrubbed launch attempt.

Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson gave the "go" to begin fuelling the 322-foot-tall
Space Launch System rocket began around 5:45 a.m. Over the course of the morning approaching
the launch window, the rocket was set to be filled with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic liquid
hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant. With the countdown clock ticking a liquid hydrogen leak led
to a significant delay in fuelling as teams worked to troubleshoot the issue.

Engineers stopped the liquid hydrogen flow to allow the connection to the rocket's core stage to
warm up in hopes of fixing the leak. However, the first try of that method did not succeed and teams
tried the same method again. After a third attempt to solve the problem Launch Director Charlie
Blackwell-Thompson called a scrub for Saturday's launch attempt before 11:30 a.m.

NASA’s massive moon rocket remains on launchpad 39B at Kennedy Space Centre, awaiting its
maiden voyage but Free said the rocket stack would likely have to be returned to the Vehicle
Assembly Building to undergo maintenance and address other issues.
Doomsday glacier, which could raise sea
levels by several feet, is holding on “by its
fingernails”, scientists say.
By Angela Fritz

Source: The CNN

Date: September 6, 2022

Antarctica's so-called "doomsday glacier" -- nicknamed because of its high risk of collapse and
threat to global sea level -- has the potential to rapidly retreat in the coming years, scientists say,
amplifying concerns over the extreme sea level rise that would accompany its potential demise.

The Thwaites Glacier, capable of raising sea level by several feet, is eroding along its underwater
base as the planet warms. In a study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience,
scientists mapped the glacier's historical retreat, hoping to learn from its past what the glacier
will likely do in the future.
They found that at some point in the past two centuries, the base of the glacier dislodged from
the seabed and retreated at a rate of 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometres) per year. That's twice the rate that
scientists have observed in the past decade or so.
That swift disintegration possibly occurred "as recently as the mid-20th century," Alastair
Graham, the study's lead author and a marine geophysicist at the University of South Florida,
said in a news release.