--- title: "Former NASA Official: Moon Launch This Month May Be “Embarrassing”" description: "NASA's former second-in-command is once again warning that the public may be in for some major surprises with the SLS launch next week." date: "2022-08-25" modified: "2022-08-25" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/lori-garver-sls-moon-launch" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Moon" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "NASA" - "sls" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # Former NASA Official: Moon Launch This Month May Be “Embarrassing” ![NASA's former second-in-command is once again warning that the public may be in for some major surprises with the SLS launch next week.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## SLS Signal NASA's former second-in-command is once again throwing shade at the agency's [uber-expensive and long-overdue]() Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, due for its inaugural launch next week. In a [new interview with *Ars Technica*](), former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver said the fanfare surrounding the SLS launch may be giving a misleading impression about the Artemis 1 Moon mission. "I think a test flight is just that," Garver told *Ars*, "it's a test flight." "This happy talk of it being completed — just look at the language, the celebration, NASA's planning, and so forth for the launch," she continued, spotlighting the launch's [celeb-studded launch schedule](). "There is not another test flight planned if this doesn't go perfectly." ## No Plan B In [her recent memoir]() and in interviews surrounding its release, including [one with Futurism](), Garver has often contrasted the cumbersome SLS with [SpaceX's Starship](). Per her retelling, Garver was an early SpaceX backer — a stance she says [earned her internal derision]() before NASA eventually got on board, too. Now, she says that contrast may soon become apparent to the public. "It will become inevitably embarrassing if Starship is launching dozens of times a year like Falcon 9 is," Garver posited, referring to SpaceX's [workhorse current-gen rocket](), "and SLS once every two years." ## Cringe Garver offered two "embarrassing" scenarios for NASA: first that SpaceX keeps operating at comparatively lower prices, and second that the SLS simply doesn't perform as planned. "So then what? You're going to put people on one in two years if the first one didn't go well? I just have never heard anyone talk about that plan," Garver said. It's certainly not outside the realm of possibility — and we'll know whether the latter of her predictions is correct very soon, given that the SLS long-awaited test launch is scheduled for August 29. **READ MORE:** [Former NASA official on trying to stop SLS: “There was just such visible hostility”]() \[*Ars Technica*\] **More on the SLS launch:** *[NASA's Moon Mission This Month Will Shoot a Probe Containing Life Into Deep Space]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()