NASA hopes to make a second attempt to launch its giant new moon rocket on Saturday, five days after two technical problems forced it to delay its long-awaited liftoff.
The US space agency was originally due to launch on Monday (29 August) a rocket capable of sending astronauts to the moon for the first time in 50 years, but decided to cancel the flight at the last minute due to a fuel leak and an engine problem.
At a media briefing on Tuesday, NASA officials said the test was helpful in fixing some problems and that additional difficulties could be overcome during the second launch attempt.
Thus, the launch exercise essentially served as a real-time dress rehearsal that would hopefully culminate in an actual, successful liftoff.
However, prospects for success on Saturday appeared dimmed by weather reports that predicted just a 40 chance of favorable conditions that day, while the US space agency admitted some outstanding technical issues remained to be resolved.
For now, NASA officials said plans call for the 32-story Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion astronaut capsule to remain on its launch pad to avoid having to bring the massive spacecraft back to the assembly building for more. extensive range of tests and repairs.
If all goes as expected, SLS will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday afternoon during a two-hour launch window that opens at 2:17 p.m. local time (20:17 CET), sending Orion on a six-week uncrewed test flight around the moon and back.
The long-awaited trip will kick off NASA’s Luna-Mars Artemis program, the successor to the Apollo lunar project of the 1960s and 1970s, before the U.S. human spaceflight effort shifts to low-Earth orbit with space shuttles and the International Space Station.
Why was the rocket launch scrubbed?
NASA’s initial attempt to launch Artemis I on Monday ended after data showed one of the rocket’s main engines failed to reach the correct pre-launch temperature required for ignition, forcing the countdown to stop and a delay.
Speaking to reporters, mission managers said they believed a faulty sensor in the rocket’s engine section was to blame for the engine cooling problem.
As a remedy for Saturday’s experience, mission managers plan to start that engine cooling process roughly 30 minutes earlier in the launch countdown, said NASA’s Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. But a full explanation for the faulty sensor requires more data analysis by engineers.
“The way the sensor behaves doesn’t match the physics of the situation,” said John Honeycutt, NASA’s SLS program manager.
The sensor was last checked and calibrated months ago at the missile factory, Honeycutt said. Changing the sensor would require returning the rocket back to the assembly building, a process that could delay the mission for months.
Why is the Artemis 1 mission so important?
SLS-Orion’s maiden voyage, a mission called Artemis I, aims to test the giant rocket in a rigorous demonstration flight, pushing the limits of its design before NASA deems it reliable enough to carry astronauts.
Named after the goddess who was Apollo’s twin sister in ancient Greek mythology, Artemis aims to return astronauts to the surface of the moon as early as 2025, although many experts believe that timeframe is likely to slip by several years.
The last people to walk on the moon were the two-man Apollo 17 landing team in 1972, following in the footsteps of 10 other astronauts on five previous missions beginning with Apollo 11 in 1969.
Artemis is also attracting commercial and international help to create a long-term lunar base as a springboard to even more ambitious human trips to Mars, a goal that NASA officials say will likely take at least until the late 2030s.
But NASA has many steps to take along the way, starting with launching the SLS-Orion vehicle into space.
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