NASA will make a second attempt to launch its powerful new rocket to the moon on Saturday, after calling off a test flight earlier in the week, an official said.
Liftoff was scheduled for Monday morning but was canceled because a test to get one of the rocket’s four RS-25 engines up to temperature for launch was unsuccessful.
What is NASA’s Artemis 1?
The target of Artemis 1, named for Apollo’s twin sister, will test the 98-meter Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will carry the Orion capsule.
The mission will be unmanned, but instead there will be dummies equipped with sensors that will record acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.
Tens of thousands of people, including US Vice President Kamala Harris, will be spectators at the launch, which comes 50 years after the Apollo 17 astronauts last set foot on the moon.
The launch was initially scheduled for Monday, but operations to fill the orange and white rocket with ultracold liquid hydrogen and oxygen were briefly delayed due to the risk of lightning strikes.
Also, a possible leak was detected during the filling of the main stage with hydrogen, causing a pause. After testing, the flow resumed.
NASA engineers later detected the engine temperature problem and decided to call off the launch.
When is Artemis 1 released?
Mike Sarafin, manager of the Artemis 1 mission at the US space agency ( NASA ), announced the date for the new launch attempt – a key test in the program that aims to return astronauts to the Moon – at a press conference on Tuesday.
NASA later tweeted that Saturday’s two-hour launch window will begin at 2:17 p.m. local time (1817 GMT).
Important data:
- Release date: September 3, 2022
- Mission duration: 37 days, 23 hours, 53 minutes
- Total distance traveled: 1.3 million miles
- Re-entry speed: 24,500 mph (Mach 32)
- Splashdown: October 11, 2022
NASA launch broadcast
The launch can be followed live on NASA’s YouTube channel. So that you don’t miss it, you can activate the reminder notification in the video of Artemis 1 on the official channel.
orbit the moon
The Orion capsule will orbit the Moon to check if the spacecraft is safe for people in the near future. Artemis intends to take a woman and a black person to the Moon for the first time.
During the 42-day journey, Orion will follow an elliptical path around the Moon, approaching about 100 kilometers at its closest approach and more than 64,000 kilometers at its furthest, the deepest in space for a spacecraft designed to carry humans.
One of the main objectives is to test the capsule’s heat shield, which at some five meters in diameter is the largest ever built.
Upon its return to Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield will have to withstand speeds of 40,000 kilometers per hour and a temperature of 2,760 degrees Celsius, about half the temperature of the Sun.
NASA is expected to spend $93 billion between 2012 and 2025 on the Artemis program, already years behind schedule, costing $4.1 billion per launch.
The next mission, Artemis 2, will put astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing.
The Artemis 3 crew will land in 2025 at the earliest.
And since humans have already visited the Moon, Artemis has his sights set on another lofty goal: a manned mission to Mars.
The Artemis program aims to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon with an orbiting space station named Gateway and a base on the surface.
Gateway would serve as a staging and resupply station for a trip to the red planet that would take at least several months.
With information from AFP.
