The time for testing is over. In its gigantic hangar at the Kennedy Space Center, the Space Launch System (SLS) receives its final preparations for take-off. The mission Artemis-1 should take off on August 29 and propel the Orion capsule for several weeks of mission around the Moon.
Several other firing windows have been communicated.
Final preparations
After more than a decade of development, preparations, delays and testing, some came to doubt that date would ever come: the launch of the Artemis-1 mission. But the last tests, passed in two stages during the spring with a major simulated countdown and filling of the tanks, showed that the rocket was sound.
Obviously, there were some inevitable technical problems, the latest being a hydrogen leak on a pipe of an umbilical system at the level of the first stage… But no blocking point, and NASA was able to test its SLS up to to validate its return on July 2 in the hangar of the Kennedy Space Center for its final preparations.
They are currently underway, and will continue until around mid-August: on August 18, the rocket and its Orion capsule will return to launch site 39B, thanks to the gigantic “Crawler Transporter” tracked vehicle.
What are you doing at the end of August?
In a conference yesterday, NASA officials did not miss the symbol represented by the 53 years of the Apollo 11 mission to give the provisional dates for the Artemis 1 mission. The first is therefore set for August 29 at 2:33 p.m. ( Paris), the next on September 2 and the third on September 5.
A close trio, which obviously at this deadline could be modified according to the weather parameters or any technical hazards likely to stop the countdown (which would not be surprising given the size and complexity of this rocket).
A great mission for Orion
The three proposed dates correspond to a mission of approximately six weeks (39 to 42 days) for the Orion capsule, which will be sent into a very distant lunar orbit. The objective of this flight, which does not embark any astronaut for a “dress rehearsal” profile before future manned lunar missions, will be to test as many systems as possible far from Earth, in particular propulsion, the European service module , communications but also electronics and atmospheric re-entry profile.
If, however, NASA does not manage to get the rocket off the ground for one reason or another on September 5, it will again return it to the assembly building… The batteries will indeed have to be changed and the ejection system reset. before possible new attempts at the end of October (from 17 to 31).
Source : SPACENEWS
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