Stream the CBS Reports documentary “Artemis: America’s New Moonshot” on the CBS News app on Sunday, August 28 at 8:00 p.m., 11:00 p.m., and 2:00 a.m. ET.
Five decades after the final launch of NASA’s famed Saturn 5 moon rocket, the U.S. space agency will launch its most powerful rocket to date on Monday for a crucial, long-overdue test flight, sending an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a 42-day circumlunar journey.
The first Space Launch System — SLS — rocket is finally prepared for launch from pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center at 8:33 a.m. EDT on Monday, the opening of a two-hour window, despite being years behind schedule and billions over budget. The forecasters predict a 70% likelihood of favorable weather.
Backup launch opportunities are available Based on the projected trajectory and the constantly shifting positions of the Earth and moon, the two dates are September 2 and 5. After that, the flight would likely be delayed until October.
Two perspectives of the heavy-lift Space Launch System moon rocket being transported to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. The launch of a 42-day unpiloted test flight is scheduled for Monday at 8:33 a.m. EDT. If all goes as planned, the Orion crew capsule atop the rocket will splash down in the Pacific Ocean on October 10. NASA
The SLS rocket, which was cobbled together from leftover space shuttle parts, a new core stage, and a modified upper stage from another rocket, stands 322 feet tall and will weigh 5.75 million pounds once 750,000 gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel are loaded on Monday morning. (More information is available in NASA’s SLS Reference Guide.)
At launch, the SLS will generate 8.8 million pounds of thrust from four shuttle-era hydrogen-fueled engines and twin solid rocket boosters containing 25 percent more propellant than their shuttle predecessors, providing a breathtaking spectacle for thousands of spaceport workers, area residents, and tourists.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told CBS News, “I’m worried people think it’s routine.” “But when the candles are extinguished, the scene is anything but usual. It is a high-wire act from start to finish… This is a major issue. And it is gorgeous. It is indeed a monster! The magnitude simply overwhelms you.”
The primary objective of the Artemis 1 mission is to deliver Orion into orbit around the moon and, in the process, set up a re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere on October 10 at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour. The mission’s first aim is to ensure that the capsule’s 16.5-foot-wide heat shield can withstand the 5,000-degree inferno of re-entry on a future voyage.
“This is a flight test. It is not risk-free “Former shuttle commander and current NASA associate administrator Bob Cabana commented on the maiden SLS launch. “We have studied and reduced the risk to the best of our abilities. In preparation for launching Orion with a crew to the moon, however, we are straining Orion beyond what it was built for.
“When we do that, we want to ensure that it works flawlessly and that we are aware of all the risks,” he said. “We’re going to learn a lot from this test flight.”
NASA (labeled rocket)/CBS News (facts and figures) (facts and figures)
American return to the moon
NASA aims to launch four astronauts on the second SLS rocket for an around-the-moon shakedown flight in 2024 — Artemis 2 — if the unpiloted Artemis 1 test flight is successful, before the first woman and the first person of color land near the moon’s south pole in 2025 or 2026.
After then, NASA plans to begin a constant stream of Artemis moon missions, sending people to the south pole zone once or twice a year for research and to look for ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters, which future crews may convert into rocket fuel, air, and water.
However, Artemis astronauts and spaceship must first reach their destination. And this necessitates a rocket capable of propelling men, people, and machines out of Earth’s gravitational pull and across the 240,000-mile chasm to the moon with adequate fuel, food, and equipment to carry out a worthwhile mission and return the crew safely to Earth.
“She is an incredible rocket,” NASA’s first female launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, told CBS News. “She provides a new heavy lift capability for deep space exploration to our nation’s space program, a brand-new capability.
“It will alter the manner in which we explore. It will return the United States to the moon and pave the path for our next steps as we prepare to travel to Mars and beyond.”
First female launch director for NASA, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson (standing) at her command position in Firing Room 1 at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA
The 322-foot “block 1” version of the SLS can lift 95 tons of payload and propellant to low-Earth orbit and 27 tons to the moon. It is the only rocket that can deliver that much cargo to the moon in a single flight, and it is the only heavy lifter that is already “human-rated.”
Future block 1B and 2 variations, the former of which will use a more powerful four-engine Exploration Upper Stage and the latter of which would use both the EUS and more powerful boosters, will stand taller than 135 meters and be able to lift between 38 and 47 tons of payload to the moon.
A gigantic rocket from SpaceX
However, the SLS is not the only massive rocket in development. SpaceX is constructing an even more ambitious rocket, one that dwarfs the SLS and everything else on paper: a two-stage, totally reusable behemoth known as the Super Heavy-Starship.
The Super Heavy first stage will generate a record 16 million pounds of thrust from 33 methane-burning Raptor engines, while the Starship upper stage, equipped with six Raptors, life support systems, and crew accommodations, is designed to transport passengers and cargo to the moon and beyond on NASA-sponsored or purely commercial missions.
The 394-foot-tall, 30-foot-wide rocket, according to SpaceX, will be able to send 100 tons or more to the moon, which is double the capacity of the SLS Block 2. The Super Heavy-Starship cannot accomplish this feat in a single flight. Multiple launches of Starship tankers will be necessary to refuel moon-bound ships prior to their departure from Earth orbit, and a large delay or launch catastrophe might have severe repercussions.
SpaceX’s Super Heavy-Starship rocket undergoing testing at the company’s flight test facility at Boca Chica, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico. The SpaceX rocket is more powerful than NASA’s Space Launch System, but it must be refueled in low-Earth orbit. Although the vehicle is less expensive than the SLS, it is unclear when it will be ready for operational use. SpaceX
SpaceX has yet to demonstrate the capability of orbital refueling on such a vast scale, which has never been accomplished by any nation or enterprise.
However, Musk remains confident in the system’s viability. Under a $2.9 billion deal, SpaceX is already constructing a Starship variation to serve as NASA’s first Artemis moon lander, and the ability to refuel the ship in Earth orbit would be required.
“Orion is designed as a vehicle for deep space exploration, and SLS is intended to get it there. That is exactly what SLS does, “added NASA’s director of exploration systems, Jim Free. “Obviously, SpaceX is a partner, and we support the company’s mission. However, they currently lack the capabilities of SLS.”
The SpaceX Super Heavy-Starship is less expensive than the government-owned, administered, and operated SLS. Although SpaceX does not disclose development costs, it is anticipated that the Super Heavy-Starship will be orders of magnitude less expensive than the SLS.
A $4.1 billion launch
NASA’s Inspector General estimates that the U.S. space agency will spend $93 billion on the Artemis moon program until 2025.
“We also estimate the current production and operating cost of a single SLS/Orion system at $4.1 billion per launch for Artemis 1 through 4, however the Agency’s ongoing efforts to increase affordability aim to minimize these costs.”
The use of sole-source, cost-plus contracts and the fact that, with the exception of the Orion capsule, its subsystems, and the accompanying launch facilities, all SLS components are expendable and “single-use” are cited as factors contributing to the SLS’s exorbitant price tag.
A depiction of the Orion spacecraft with its European Space Agency-supplied propulsion and solar-powered service module in lunar orbit. European Space Agency
Contrary to SpaceX’s pledge to entirely reusable rockets, all components other than the Orion crew capsule are discarded after a single use. Musk, the founder of SpaceX, often compares this to flying a 747 from New York to Los Angeles and then discarding the aircraft.
In an interview with CBS News, Paul Martin, the NASA inspector general, expressed worry. “This system is disposable and single-use, as opposed to some commercial launch systems that have several applications. This system is single-use. Therefore, the $4,1 billion every trip… disturbs us to the point where we have stated in our studies that we believe it is unsustainable.”
However, the SLS has one distinct advantage in the short term: flight-tested components. At the conclusion of the space shuttle program, when Congress approved the SLS project, it required NASA to utilize existing hardware whenever possible.
The SLS Block 1 utilizes modified shuttle-heritage main engines and a Northrop Grumman booster system that is already human-rated — the Artemis 1 engines have flown a total of 25 shuttle missions — in addition to a Boeing-designed upper stage that is used with United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 rocket.
Airbus even constructed the European Space Agency-supplied service module for the Orion spacecraft. Its primary thruster is a remanufactured space shuttle Orbital Maneuvering System engine that was manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne and flew 19 times between 1984 and 2002.
And the SLS is now operational.
Regarding the exorbitant cost, Marcia Smith, a space expert in Washington, stated in an email exchange: “Money is not usually the deciding factor. For SLS, protecting jobs, and not just any jobs, but high-tech jobs in a critical industry for national security, is a driving force.”
“If it is essential for the nation to lead the world in space research, do you want to put all of your eggs in the basket of millionaire space enthusiasts? Bet everything on someone who could change their minds, go away, or become ill? These are singular failures.”
She said that if the SLS suffers a catastrophic failure, “the story might change.” “Even so, I’m not certain. Not everyone is persuaded that the private sector is reliable enough to stake the nation’s leadership in space on public-private partnerships.”
William Harwood
Since 1984, Bill Harwood has covered the U.S. space program full-time, first as United Press International’s Cape Canaveral bureau chief and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary trip since Voyager 2’s encounter of Neptune, as well as a multitude of commercial and military launches. Harwood is a committed amateur astronomer based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and co-author of “Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia.”