en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_II
2 corrections found
in March 2018, NASA decided that the Gateway's initial module would instead launch on a commercial rocket due to delays in constructing the Mobile Launcher required for the more powerful Exploration Upper Stage. The SpaceX Falcon Heavy was selected as the launch vehicle.
Gateway's Falcon Heavy launch was not selected in March 2018. NASA said in June 2020 that a launch provider had not yet been chosen, and it officially selected SpaceX's Falcon Heavy in February 2021.
Full reasoning
This passage compresses later Gateway decisions into March 2018, but NASA's own records show the Falcon Heavy selection happened much later.
In a June 5, 2020 NASA release about Gateway's HALO module, NASA said the agency "will select a launch provider for PPE and HALO by late fall 2020". That means no Falcon Heavy selection had been made yet in 2018.
NASA then announced on February 9, 2021 that it had selected SpaceX to launch PPE and HALO, stating that the elements were targeted to launch together "on a Falcon Heavy rocket".
So the article's claim that, in March 2018, Falcon Heavy was selected as the launch vehicle is incorrect by nearly three years.
2 sources
- NASA Awards Northrop Grumman Artemis Contract for Gateway Crew Cabin - NASA
June 5, 2020 ... NASA's Launch Services Program will select a launch provider for PPE and HALO by late fall 2020.
- NASA Awards Contract to Launch Initial Elements for Lunar Outpost - NASA
Feb. 9, 2021 ... NASA has selected SpaceX ... to provide launch services for the agency's Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) ... targeted to launch together ... on a Falcon Heavy rocket.
NASA began the tradition of playing music to astronauts during the Gemini program, and first used music to wake up a flight crew during the Apollo 15 mission.
NASA's own wake-up-call chronology shows Apollo crews were awakened with music before Apollo 15, including Apollo 10 and Apollo 12.
Full reasoning
The first half of this sentence is consistent with NASA history materials: NASA says the wake-up tradition dates to the Gemini missions. But the second half is wrong.
NASA's official wake-up-call chronology lists music being used on Apollo 10 in May 1969, including "On a Clear Day" by Robert Goulet, and on Apollo 12 in November 1969, well before Apollo 15 flew in 1971. Another NASA summary of the chronology says the wake-up tradition "began in earnest" after Apollo 10, which directly contradicts the claim that the first music wake-up for a flight crew was on Apollo 15.
So Apollo 15 was not the first mission where NASA used music to wake a flight crew.
3 sources
- Other Research Resources - NASA
Wakeup Call Chronology: Since the Gemini missions, there has been a tradition of using music to wake up astronauts in space.
- Chronology of Wakeup Calls - NASA
APOLLO 10 ... 5/21/69 'On a Clear Day' by Robert Goulet ... APOLLO 12 ... 'The Yankee Clipper, Apollo 12' ... APOLLO 15 ... 'Tijuana Taxi' by Tijuana Brass.
- Chronology of Wakeup Calls - NASA
The wakeup tradition seemed to begin in earnest and be sent on a regular basis only after Apollo 10.