The take-off of Artemis-1, NASA’s new rocket – the most powerful in the world – was canceled on Monday August 29 due to a technical problem.
This is a disappointment for the American space agency. Fifty years after Apollo’s last flight, the Artemis-1 mission should mark the start of the American program to return to the Moon, which should allow humanity to then reach the planet Mars. “We keep the option [d’un nouveau lancement] Friday “declared at a press conference Mike Sarafin, in charge of the mission, without wanting to go further.
He said that the analyzes of the NASA teams would resume on Tuesday in order to better estimate the time necessary to resolve the problems that have arisen, in particular concerning one of the engines. If the take-off does not take place on Friday, it will also be possible next Monday. Then there won’t be any before September 19.
Engineers ‘will fix it and we’ll fly’
The launch was scheduled for 8:33 a.m. (2:33 p.m. Paris time) from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. But as the day gradually dawned on the orange and white SLS rocket, 98 meters high, lift-off had become increasingly unlikely. “I’m a little disappointed, but (…) I’m not surprised “said astronaut Stan Love, who has worked on the program for two decades. “It’s a brand new vehicle, it has millions of parts, they all have to work perfectly. »
The tanks of the megarocket received well over three million liters of ultracold liquid hydrogen and oxygen. But the filling had started about an hour late because of too high a risk of lightning in the middle of the night. Then a leak caused a break in the supply of the main stage with hydrogen, before a solution was found and the flow resumed.
Around 7 a.m. (local time), a new, decisive problem appeared: one of the four RS-25 engines, under the main stage of the rocket, could not reach the desired temperature, a condition needed to turn it on. The countdown was then stopped, and after more than an hour and a half of waiting and trying to fix the problem, NASA launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson made the decision to cancel.
The firing window was only two hours long and time was running out. “We don’t take off until everything is ready”, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said shortly after the launch was canceled. The engineers “get to the bottom of the problem, fix it, and we’ll fly”he assured.
“Dreams and Hopes”
Thousands of people had made the trip to watch the show, including the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. The mission aims to propel the unmanned Orion capsule into orbit around the Moon, to verify that the vehicle is safe for future astronauts, including the first woman and first person of color to walk on the lunar surface. “This mission carries away the dreams and hopes of many people”NASA boss Bill Nelson said this weekend, before adding: “We are now the Artemis generation. »
The main purpose of Artemis-1 is to test the capsule’s heat shield, which will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at almost 40,000 km/h and with a temperature half as high as that of the Sun’s surface. Instead of astronauts, mannequins will be on board, equipped with sensors recording vibrations and radiation levels.
Microsatellites will also be deployed to study the Moon, or even an asteroid. The capsule will venture up to 64,000 kilometers behind the Moon, farther than any other habitable spacecraft so far.
A complete failure of the mission would be devastating for a rocket with a huge budget – it stands at 4.1 billion dollars (4.1 billion euros) per launch, according to a public audit – and several years behind schedule ( it was commissioned in 2010 by the US Congress for an initial take-off date in 2017).
Aim (again) for the Moon
After this first mission, Artemis-2 will carry astronauts to the Moon in 2024, without landing there. It is an honor that will be reserved for the crew of Artemis-3, in 2025 at the earliest. NASA then wants to launch about one mission per year.
The goal is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon, with the construction of a space station in orbit around it (Gateway) and a base on the surface. On this station, humanity must learn to live in deep space and develop all the technologies necessary for a round trip to Mars.
Also listen Objective Moon: the new space conquest
A journey of several years that could take place “at the end of the 2030s”, according to Bill Nelson. But before that, going to the Moon is also strategic, faced with the ambitions of competing nations, notably China.
“We want to go to the South Pole [de la Lune]where the resources are »including water in the form of ice, detailed Bill Nelson on the American channel NBC on Sunday. “We don’t want China to go there and say ‘this is our territory’. »