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LIVE: Artemis II Launch Day Updates

2:14 p.m.

NASA’s Artemis II crew NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, arrived at Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with Orion spacecraft atop stands ready for launch. The opening of today’s launch window is slated for just over 4 hours from now, at 6:24 p.m. EDT.

In the next few minutes, the crew will take the elevator up the pad’s fixed service structure and walk down the climate-controlled crew access arm to the White Room, their final stop before climbing aboard their Orion spacecraft. In this clean, controlled environment at the end of the crew access arm, the closeout crew will assist the astronauts with hatch operations and verify that all safety systems are ready for launch.

Since the late 1960s, pads A and B at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39 have supported America’s major space programs, with Pad A used most frequently for launches under the Space Shuttle Program. After the retirement of the shuttle in 2011, Pad A helped usher in a new era of human spaceflight as launch pad for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, which returned human spaceflight capability to the United States. Pad B saw the launch of NASA’s Artemis I mission in November 2022 and will continue to be the primary launch pad for America’s efforts to return to humans the Moon.

Chemistry was the one subject in high school that was a real challenge for me.

That being said, I really enjoyed reading about this newest discovery, which I read about on X today.

Oxford University researchers have discovered the densest element yet known to science…

The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pillocks.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert.

However, it can be detected because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.

A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years.

It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.

This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pillocks but twice as many morons.