Another modest advance: NASA has approved a second launch attempt for the Artemis moon rocket this afternoon, despite the possibility of rain, as the United States comes closer to returning to the lunar surface.
The first test launch of NASA’s next-generation moon rocket is scheduled for Saturday afternoon near Cape Canaveral.
The complicated fuelling procedure was delayed by a liquid hydrogen leak, but the countdown to launch proceeded.
It would be the first mission of the grandiose Artemis program to restore humans to the moon.
Monday’s initial launch attempt was aborted owing to engineering issues that have since been rectified.
The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion spacecraft are launching for the first time.
After a 50-year gap, crewed trips to lunar orbit might resume as early as 2024 if current efforts are successful.
In 1972, during Apollo 17, the last mission of NASA’s Apollo program, humans last visited the moon.
Five days after an original launch attempt was aborted due to technical difficulties, NASA’s massive, next-generation moon rocket will make its inaugural launch on an uncrewed test journey to the moon.
On Saturday morning, the countdown clock started and ground technicians began fueling the 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida for the Artemis 1 mission at 2:17 p.m.
The intricate and delicate procedure to feed the rocket with super-cooled liquid hydrogen and oxygen was delayed when engineers discovered a hydrogen leak, but the countdown proceeded while crews worked to resolve the issue.
The liquid oxygen fuelling of the core stage was completed just after 10 a.m. After several efforts to patch the leak, liquid hydrogen refueling was restarted using a laborious manual technique, causing a delay of several hours.
If successful, the launch would be a significant milestone towards humanity’s return to the moon, 50 years after the final Apollo lunar mission, with the Artemis program targeting crewed trips to lunar orbit by 2024.
The ambitious Artemis initiative, a collaboration between NASA, SpaceX, and the space agencies of Europe, Japan, and Canada, aspires to ultimately create a lunar outpost as a stepping stone for interplanetary space flights.
Monday’s earlier launch attempt was aborted due to technical issues. NASA reports that technicians have since resolved the problems.
NASA’s massive, next-generation moon rocket will make its inaugural launch on an uncrewed test voyage to the moon, five days after a previous launch attempt was aborted due to technical difficulties.
On Saturday morning, workers attempted to ignite the enormous SLS rocket as the Orion crew capsule sat atop it.
On Saturday morning, the countdown clock started as ground technicians began refueling the 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 2:17 p.m.
The liquid oxygen fuelling of the core stage was completed just after 10 a.m. Liquid hydrogen refueling was far behind schedule following three unsuccessful efforts to patch a discovered leak.
At sunrise at Cape Canaveral, the countdown started. At 2.17 p.m., NASA will have a two-hour launch window.
The weather is another issue beyond of NASA’s control. The most recent prognosis at Cape Canaveral predicted a 70 percent possibility of good circumstances for Saturday’s two-hour launch window.
The long and careful operation of loading the rocket’s core-stage fuel tanks with hundreds of thousands of litres of super-cooled liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant began before sunrise.
In order to correct a leak, engineers halted loading liquid hydrogen around 7:30 a.m., almost an hour into the intricate operation.
Teams first heated and reseated a quick-disconnect to ensure a perfect seal, but the problem continued, delaying hydrogen fuelling by at least two hours.
At around 9.30 a.m., NASA reported that the liquid hydrogen leak was found again in a cavity between the ground and flight side plates of a fast disconnect in the engine section, and that they tried to perform the seal repair.
As of 10 a.m., however, the countdown clock to launch had not been stopped or paused. At T-10 minutes, there will be a 30-minute break before the countdown resumes.
NASA will have a two-hour launch window if weather or other factors delay the planned liftoff at 2.17 p.m.
In Monday’s aborted launch, a sensor showed that one of the four engines was too warm, but engineers subsequently confirmed that it was really sufficiently cool.
This time, the launch crew intended to disregard the defective sensor and depend on other equipment to verify that each main engine was appropriately cooled.
Before ignition, the primary engines must be as cold as the minus-420 degree Fahrenheit liquid hydrogen fuel that flows into them. If not, the subsequent damage might result in a sudden engine shutdown and flight cancellation.
The Orion capsule will be propelled from Earth orbit on a 37-day journey that will carry it to within 60 miles of the lunar surface before traveling 40,000 miles beyond the moon and returning to Earth for an October 11 splashdown in the Pacific.
If the mission is launched on Saturday, the Orion capsule atop the rocket would spend 37 days circling the Moon at a distance of around 60 miles.
To rectify a leak, engineers halted loading liquid hydrogen around 7:30 a.m., almost an hour into the intricate procedure.
Saturday, the media prepares as the NASA Artemis I rocket waits on launch pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center.
The $4.1 billion test mission is the first stage in NASA’s Artemis program of renewed lunar exploration, which is named after Apollo’s twin sister Artemis.
The rocket, formally designated Space Launch System (SLS), and the Orion spacecraft are ready for launch from Launchpad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
If the mission is launched on Saturday, the Orion capsule will spend 37 days circling the Moon at a distance of around 60 miles.
The mission, dubbed Artemis I, is the first voyage for both the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule, which were constructed under NASA contracts with Boeing and Lockheed Martin, respectively.
After decades of focusing on low-Earth orbit with space shuttles and the International Space Station, this also signifies a significant shift in NASA’s post-Apollo human spaceflight program.
The Artemis program aspires to return people to the surface of the moon as early as 2025, however many analysts feel that this timeline will likely be pushed back.
Twelve astronauts walked on the moon during six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972, the only spaceflights to land people on the lunar surface prior to that time. But Apollo, a product of the Cold War-era U.S.-Soviet space rivalry, was less science-driven than Artemis.
Saturday AM finds Artemis 1 on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Saturday afternoon, NASA’s SLS rocket carrying the Orion capsule module is expected to make a second attempt to launch.
The SLS rocket for the Artemis program is likened to the Apollo Saturn V rocket.
The new moon program has attracted private partners such as SpaceX and the space agencies of Europe, Canada, and Japan to create a permanent lunar base of operations as a stepping stone for more ambitious human missions to Mars.
Launching the SLS-Orion spacecraft is a crucial first step. Its first trip will put the 5.75-million-pound vehicle through its paces in a tough test flight designed to push its design limitations and demonstrate that the spacecraft is fit to carry humans.
If the mission is successful, a crewed Artemis II voyage around the moon and back might occur as early as 2024, followed by the program’s first lunar landing of people, including a woman, with Artemis III within a few more years.
The SLS, billed as the world’s most powerful and complicated rocket, is the largest new vertical launch vehicle NASA has constructed since the Saturn V during the Apollo period.
Saturday’s countdown should conclude with the ignition of the rocket’s four main RS-25 engines and its twin solid-rocket boosters, producing 8.8 million pounds of thrust, approximately 15 percent more than Saturn V, and propelling the spacecraft into orbit.
About 90 minutes after launch, the rocket’s upper stage will propel Orion out of Earth orbit and into a 37-day journey that will put it within 60 miles of the moon’s surface before sailing 40,000 miles beyond the moon and back to Earth. On October 11, the capsule is projected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
After launching the Orion capsule into space, the solid-rocket boosters and core stage will plunge into the ocean.
Massive crowds gathered on Monday for the aborted maiden launch attempt.
Above is a view of the inside of NASA’s Orion capsule. Saturday’s mission capsule will contain three test dummies.
Orion will carry a simulated crew of three, consisting of one male and two female mannequins equipped with sensors to detect radiation and other stressors that actual astronauts might encounter.
The spacecraft will also deploy a cargo of ten tiny scientific satellites known as CubeSats, including one meant to survey the moon’s south pole ice deposits.
A primary objective of the mission is to test the durability of Orion’s heat shield during re-entry as it hits the Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 mph, or 32 times the speed of sound, on its return from lunar orbit. This is significantly faster than the re-entry speeds of capsules returning from Earth orbit.
The heat shield is intended to resist re-entry friction that is anticipated to boost exterior temperatures to about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The SLS-Orion spacecraft has cost NASA at least $37 billion so far, after more than a decade of development and years of delays and price overruns.
The Office of the Inspector General of NASA estimates that Artemis will cost a total of $93 billion by 2025.
NASA defends the program as a benefit to space exploration, claiming that it generates tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity.