On Friday, September 2, five days after a first attempt to launch NASA’s huge, next-generation moon rocket on its first test flight was unsuccessful due to technical issues, ground crews at Kennedy Space Center in Florida began their final full day of launch preparations.
The moon-to-Mars Artemis programme, which is NASA’s successor to the Apollo lunar missions from fifty years ago, is still on track for a Saturday (September 3) afternoon liftoff of the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion space capsule, according to NASA officials.
As part of the Artemis I project, the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft, which were built for NASA by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., respectively, are performing their initial missions.
Before an astronaut-carrying trip is scheduled for 2024, Orion will be launched by the SLS on a 37-day, unmanned test flight around the moon and return to assess both spacecraft.
‘Before we put a crew on them, we want to make sure they work,’ said NASA Associate Administrator Robert Cabana, a former astronaut who commanded NASA’s Endeavour, the first International Space Station assembly mission in 1998.
‘One of the things we want to do is we want to make sure that the Orion spacecraft can support a crew of four for 21 days. So originally we were looking at a 42-day mission. With this new launch day, we’re looking at 39 days, which is well beyond the 21-day designed operation for the Orion spacecraft. So that’s going to be a stress on the system,’ he added.
Post Your Comments