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NASA plans to take the first step in its return to the moon in late August or early September with the launch of its Orion spacecraft to orbit the moon, officials told reporters on Wednesday. agency.
The long-awaited flight, which will have no astronauts on board, will take off on Aug. 29, Sept. 2 or Sept. 5, NASA said, giving the first specific dates for a mission that has been under construction for years. .
The flight will also mark the first launch of the agency’s massive Space Launch System rocket, a major milestone in its Artemis campaign to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
Given the complexity of the vehicles and the fact that NASA has not launched the SLS rocket before, NASA stressed that the dates for launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were provisional and could change.
NASA needed several attempts earlier this year to conduct a simulated power and countdown test, known as the wet clothes test, of the SLS rocket. When they loaded the rocket with 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, the engineers discovered a number of problems, including a hydrogen leak that prevented NASA from completing the countdown to the test. As a result, NASA was forced to return the rocket from the launch pad to its assembly building for further repairs and testing.
Still, officials said they were able to complete enough of the test to proceed with a launch attempt. On Wednesday, space agency officials said everything was going well.
NASA’s SLS lunar rocket hits the launch pad for the first time
The mission, known as Artemis I, will send the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the Moon for about six weeks, allowing the agency to test a number of systems before putting the astronauts on board.
One of the main goals of the flight is to test the Orion heat shield, said Mike Sarafin, manager of NASA’s Artemis mission. The heat shield is designed to protect Orion and the future crew from the extreme temperatures they will encounter when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 mph, or Mach 32. Sarafin said those temperatures will reach “half the sun.”
NASA will also seek to test the spacecraft’s navigation systems, its ability to use energy from its solar arrays, and its resilience when traveling through high-radiation areas. Three mannequins on board will be equipped with sensors to determine how the astronauts would go in flight. Sarafin said another test would be the recovery of the spacecraft after it skied into the ocean.
Since NASA has not attempted to send a spacecraft designed to fly humans to the moon in 50 years, Sarafin said problems were expected, but “our team is ready to adapt along the way.”
If the Artemis I mission goes as planned, NASA plans to do a similar mission, known as Artemis II, with astronauts on board. A human landing, called Artemis III, could arrive in 2025, NASA said.
If NASA decides to continue with an Artemis I launch on August 29, it would roll the SLS rocket from its assembly building to the launch pad on August 18.
“We believe we are on a good path to get there [launch] attempts those days, “said Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator. But he reminded reporters that astronauts often tell their families they come to see them launch into space that they should” plan a vacation. seven days in Florida, and maybe you see a release there, too. “