Alexis Guilleux (correspondent in the United States), with AFP
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7:12 p.m., November 16, 2022
With a deafening noise, NASA’s new mega-rocket, the most powerful in the world, took off on Wednesday from Florida, heading for the Moon, for the first unmanned mission of the major American return program to the Moon, Artemis. The rocket, named SLS, rose in the night like a giant ball of fire at 1:47 am (06:47 GMT), from the Kennedy Space Center, in the south-east of the United States. About two hours later, NASA confirmed that the spacecraft was on the right course for the Moon.
The third launch attempt will therefore have been the right one
The third launch attempt will therefore have been the right one, after two tests canceled at the last minute this summer due to technical problems, then two hurricanes having further postponed take-off by several weeks.
The Artemis 1 mission should last 25 days in total, and many stages could still pose problems, but the first takeoff of this 98-meter-tall giant, in development for more than a decade, already represents a great success for the American space agency.
The final “go” was given by NASA’s first female launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson. “We are all part of something incredibly special, the first liftoff of Artemis,” she told her teams after launch. “What you have achieved today will inspire generations to come.”
The Artemis mission, 50 years after the last Apollo mission
Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, this test flight, which will circumnavigate the Moon without landing there and without an astronaut on board, should confirm that the vehicle is safe for a future crew. It marks the grand start of the Artemis flagship program, which aims to send the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon. The goal is to establish a lasting human presence there, in preparation for a trip to Mars.
Despite a night launch on Wednesday, some 100,000 people were expected to admire the show, especially from the surrounding beaches. “It’s an experience I’ve been waiting for all my life,” Todd Garland told AFP, tears in his eyes on Cocoa Beach. “My very first memory is of my mom waking me up to watch the moon landing, I’ve always wanted to see a liftoff ever since, and now this is it,” added the 55-year-old, who drove from Kentucky for the event.
25 day mission
The takeoff took place with a delay of forty minutes because of a hydrogen leak, finally repaired, during the operations of filling the tanks of the rocket with its cryogenic fuel. This summer, the first take-off attempt was canceled at the last moment due to a faulty sensor, and the second due to an uncontrolled hydrogen leak. After these technical problems, two hurricanes – Ian then Nicole – successively threatened the rocket, postponing take-off by several weeks.
Just after takeoff, crews from the control center in Houston, Texas, took over. After a few minutes, the two white boosters and the orange main stage separated, falling back into the ocean. Then a final push from the upper stage put the Orion capsule on its way to the Moon, which it will reach in a few days.
After a flyby just about 100 km from the lunar surface, the spacecraft will be placed in a distant orbit for about a week, and will venture up to 64,000 km behind the Moon – a record for a habitable capsule. Finally, Orion will begin its return to Earth, testing its heat shield, the largest ever built. It will have to withstand a temperature half as hot as the surface of the Sun as it passes through the atmosphere. Landing in the Pacific Ocean is scheduled for December 11.
In 2024, Artemis 2 must take astronauts to the Moon
After the Saturn V rocket of the Apollo missions, then the space shuttles, SLS must bring NASA into a new era of human exploration, this time of deep space. “A lot of sweat and tears went into that rocket ship,” NASA boss Bill Nelson said Tuesday. “It will keep us going back and forth to the Moon and beyond for decades to come.”
In 2024, Artémis 2 must take astronauts to the Moon, still without landing there. An honor reserved for the crew of Artemis 3, in 2025 at the earliest. NASA then plans one mission per year, to build a space station in orbit around the Moon, and a base on its south pole. The goal is to test new equipment there: suits, vehicle, mini-power plant, use of ice water on site… All in order to establish a lasting human presence there.
This experiment should prepare a manned flight to Mars, perhaps in the late 2030s.