Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA’s giant next-generation rocket was ready for its long-awaited first launch Monday for a six-week test flight around the moon and back, marking the first mission of the successor to the space agency’s Artemis program. to Apollo. The 32-story two-stage Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion crew were scheduled to explode during the opening of the two-hour launch window from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. 11:00 p.m. EDT (1233 GMT).
SLS-Orion’s maiden voyage, a mission called Artemis I, aims to test the 5.75 million-pound vehicle in a rigorous demonstration flight, pushing its design limits before NASA spaceships are reliable enough to carry passengers. Described as the world’s most powerful and complex rocket, SLS is the largest new vertical launch system built by the US space agency since the Saturn V flew during the Apollo Moon program in the 1960s and 1970s.
The spacecraft was slowly moved to the historic launch pad 39B earlier this month after weeks of final preparations and ground tests. Last week, NASA officials concluded a flight readiness review by announcing that all systems were “going for launch.” The problem, which NASA officials cited last week as a potential stoppage for Monday’s launch, could indicate that the newly repaired hydrogen line fittings are not holding during the rocket’s refueling.
If the countdown stops for some reason, NASA has set September 2 and September 5 as backup launch dates. Barring last-minute technical difficulties or inclement weather, Monday’s countdown should end with the ignition of the four main R-25 rocket engines and their two solid-fuel rocket boosters to generate 8.8 million pounds of thrust, creating about 15 percent more thrust than the one produced by the rocket. Saturn. V, sends the spaceship staring into the sky.
About 90 minutes after launch, the Orion rocket’s upper stage will lift from Earth orbit for a 42-day flight that will bring it within 60 miles of the moon’s surface before moving to within 40,000 miles of the moon. . brings Earth. The capsule is expected to fall into the Pacific Ocean on October 10. Although there will be no humans on board, Orion will carry a simulated crew of three one male and two female dummies that will be equipped with sensors to measure radiation levels and other stresses that real astronauts will experience.
The main objective of the mission is to test the endurance of Orion’s heat shield during reentry from the Moon as it travels through Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 miles (39,429 km) per hour, or 32 times the speed of sound, after returning from the Moon. circulate. Crashes – much faster than the more common returns of astronauts returning from low Earth orbit. “It’s our highest priority to accomplish,” Senior Flight Director Rick LaBrode said of the demonstration of the heat shield’s ability to withstand friction during reentry, with the temperature outside the capsule at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Fahrenheit). .Celsius) is expected to increase. “That’s what holds the capsule together and saves the astronauts.”
Back to the moon
NASA’s Artemis program—named after the goddess who was Apollo’s twin in ancient Greek mythology—aims to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon in early 2025, and has a long way to go for even more ambitious future journeys. The lunar colony of this period is to be established as a step. Sending people to Mars. NASA chief Bill Nelson defended the Artemis program as a boon for space exploration and an “economic engine,” noting that in 2019 alone, for example, it generated $14 billion in trade and supported 70,000 U.S. jobs.
The biggest financial beneficiaries of the program are the main suppliers of SLS and Orion – Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin Corp. Twelve astronauts walked on the moon during the six manned Apollo missions that landed between 1969 and 1972, the only spacecraft to ever send humans to the lunar surface.
If successful, Artemis I will pave the way for the first manned SLS-Orion mission, a round trip to the moon designated Artemis II in early 2024, which will be launched a year or more from now. V will be followed by Artemis III Journey. to the lunar surface. Artemis III involves a much greater degree or complexity of integration of SLS-Orion with the series of spacecraft built and flown by Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch company. These include SpaceX’s own Starship heavy launch vehicle and a lunar lander still in development, as well as several components that have yet to be built orbital fuel storage and space tankers to fill it. Even New Moon’s walking suits have yet to be designed. NASA’s Office of the Inspector General said last year that the first Artemis III landing on the moon was more likely to be achieved two to three years later than the agency’s target date of late 2025.
