CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The countdown has begun for the launch of NASA’s beleaguered Artemis 1 moon mission.
Regardless of some issues over the harm the $4.1-billion-dollar Area Launch System (SLS) automobile and Orion spacecraft skilled because of Hurricane Nicole, NASA is transferring ahead with its present launch try. Artemis 1 is at present counting all the way down to a two-hour launch window which begins on Wednesday (Nov. 16) at 1:04 a.m. EST (0604 GMT). You may watch the launch dwell on-line right here on Area.com courtesy of NASA.
Stay occasion protection of the Artemis 1 countdown and launch will air on Area.com courtesy of NASA Tv, the NASA cell app (opens in new tab), and the company’s official web site (opens in new tab). Broadcasting of prelaunch actions begins at 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT) when the company begins the Area Launch System‘s cryogenic fueling course of.
Associated: Watch NASA’s Artemis 1 launch on-line without spending a dime
Learn extra: NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission: Stay updates
Artemis 1 was initially scheduled to launch in late August, however glitches with fueling prompted a one-month delay. Then got here Hurricane Ian, which prompted additional delays as NASA rolled the Artemis 1 SLS stack off of Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Area Heart (KSC) for the shelter of the huge Car Meeting Constructing (VAB). After being rolled out to the pad as soon as extra on Nov. 4, SLS then needed to climate Hurricane Nicole, which subjected the automobile to excessive winds whereas it weakened to a tropical storm shortly after landfall.
Even supposing the SLS automobile and Orion spacecraft skilled some slight harm throughout Hurricane Nicole, NASA officers are assured of their determination to goal for the Nov. 16 launch try. “There is not any change in our plan to try to launch on the sixteenth,” Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission supervisor at NASA headquarters in Washington, stated throughout a media teleconference Monday (Nov. 14) after performing analyses of the harm.
One of many chief areas of concern is a skinny strip of insulative caulking referred to as RTV that smooths out a small groove encircling the Orion spacecraft with a purpose to forestall undesirable airflow and heating throughout flight. A piece of RTV was torn unfastened by Nicole’s winds, and there are actually worries that extra might shake unfastened throughout liftoff and create a particles hazard for SLS.
Learn extra: NASA orders 3 extra Orion crew capsules for Artemis moon missions
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The Artemis 1 mission group has been analyzing the dangers related to the broken RTV on the identical time the huge countdown timer right here at KSC continues to tick all the way down to the Nov. 16 launch window.
“The unanimous advice for the group was that we have been in a superb place to go forward and proceed with the launch countdown,” Jeremy Parsons, deputy supervisor of NASA’s Exploration Floor Methods program at Kennedy Area Heart in Florida, stated throughout a media teleconference on Monday (Nov. 14).
Artemis 1 would be the maiden voyage for SLS, and the second flight for the Orion capsule after a check flight atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in 2014. If all goes in line with plan, the mission would be the first in NASA’s new lunar exploration program that may see astronauts orbit the moon with a crewed Artemis 2 launch in 2024, and can put people again on the moon close to the lunar south pole with Artemis 3 in 2025 or 2026.
Artemis 1 will final almost 26 days when it launches, ending with the Orion capsule splashing down within the Pacific Ocean after reentering Earth’s ambiance at 25,000 mph (40,200 km/h).
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