NASA is considering September 23 or 27 for a possible launch of its mega-rocket to the Moon
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After two failed attempts due to technical problems, The NASA announced on Thursday September 8 that it could try to launch its new mega-rocket to the Moon on September 23 or 27.
This long-awaited flight of the Artemis-1 mission, without a crew on board, must test in real conditions the SLS rocket (for Space Launch System) and the Orion capsule at its summit, where the astronauts will take place in the future.
The possible firing window on September 23 will begin at 6:47 a.m. local (12:47 p.m. Paris time), while that of the 27th will open at 11:37 a.m. local (5:37 p.m. Paris time), said Jim Free, a senior official at the space agency. American, during a press conference. These dates were chosen to avoid a conflict with NASA’s DART mission, whose spacecraft must hit an asteroid on September 26 in an attempt to deflect it from its trajectory. Both missions need to use an international antenna network called the Deep Space Network.
The dates envisaged by the space agency will, however, depend on a special exemption that NASA must obtain in order to avoid re-testing the batteries on a system for the emergency destruction of the rocket if it leaves its trajectory for heading towards a populated area.
If the agency does not receive this waiver, the rocket will have to return to the assembly building, which would push the schedule back several weeks. The launch is highly symbolic, because it must embody the future of NASA in the face of the ambitions of China or SpaceX in particular.
heat shield
NASA’s scheduled rocket liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida was canceled at the last moment on Saturday for the second time in a week, a setback that pushes back the actual launch of the US back-to-moon program, Artemis.
A fuel leak problem had started in the early morning, during the filling operations of the rocket tanks. Mike Bolger, a NASA official, told the press conference that the agency was working to replace the seals to fix the ultra-cold liquid hydrogen leak. The orange and white SLS rocket, which has never flown before, has been in development for more than a decade to become the most powerful in the world.
Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, Artemis 1 should make it possible to verify that the Orion capsule, at the top of the rocket, is safe to transport astronauts to the Moon in the future. For this first mission, Orion will venture up to 64,000 kilometers behind the Moon, farther than any other habitable spacecraft so far.
The main objective is to test its heat shield, the largest ever built. On its return to the Earth’s atmosphere, it will have to withstand a speed of 40,000 km/h and a temperature half as high as that of the surface of the Sun.
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