[U, X2] DART Asteroid Redirection Liftoff May Be Closer To Second Week Of December 2021

Although the launch window opens on this coming Monday, we read yesterday that the final close-outs will take two weeks, and they just began, on Thursday. Then it must be rolled to the pad. [Update No. 2: There is a NASA press conference at 4 PM EST on Sunday on DART (I'll listen in) -- it should resolve the launch schedule, if it is to be this coming week. Update No. 1: To be fair, NASA-TV still shows a Tuesday launch time -- that will be live broadcast. So I am not sure whether the below is accurate, or the media guide.]

So, my best guess is a few days, to a week before (or after) the next gen space telescope (in French Guiana). But DART will go from Vandenberg. Now you know; here is that story from Johns Hopkins / NASA:

. . .Final closeouts will occur over the next two weeks in preparation for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg during a launch window that opens at 10:21 p.m. PST, Nov. 23 (1:21 a.m. EST, Nov. 24). Next up, DART will be encapsulated in the payload fairing and attached to the Falcon 9 rocket to prepare for rollout to the launch pad. . . .

Onward, grinning -- today is Moderna booster dose day, in this household! Woot -- I've never have had, nor will I have, any issue with mRNA vaccines. Easy, quick and painless. . . forever -- and perhaps more importantly, it is a responsible approach to my fellow human travelers, on this tiny blue life-raft -- we are all each others' keepers, and protectors. Even the (no-vax) idiots among us (typed with love. . . I think). Smile. . . .

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