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 Space Launch System (SLS) automobile and Orion spacecraft experienced due to Hurricane Nicole, NASA is shifting ahead with its present launch try. Artemis 1 is presently 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 possibly can watch the launch live online here on House.com courtesy of NASA.
Stay occasion protection of the Artemis 1 countdown and launch will air on House.com courtesy of NASA Tv, the NASA mobile app (opens in new tab), and the agency’s official website (opens in new tab). Broadcasting of prelaunch actions begins at 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT) when the company begins the Space Launch System‘s cryogenic fueling course of.
Associated: Watch NASA’s Artemis 1 launch online for free
Learn extra: NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission: Live updates
Artemis 1 was initially scheduled to launch in late August, however glitches with fueling brought on a one-month delay. Then got here Hurricane Ian, which brought on additional delays as NASA rolled the Artemis 1 SLS stack off of Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy House Middle (KSC) for the shelter of the huge Automobile 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 vehicle to high winds whereas it weakened to a tropical storm shortly after landfall.
Even if the SLS automobile and Orion spacecraft skilled some slight harm throughout Hurricane Nicole, NASA officers are assured of their choice to intention for the Nov. 16 launch try. “There is not any change in our plan to aim 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 view to forestall undesirable airflow and heating throughout flight. A piece of RTV was torn unfastened by Nicole’s winds, and there at the moment are worries that extra may shake unfastened throughout liftoff and create a particles hazard for SLS.
Learn extra: NASA orders 3 more Orion crew capsules for Artemis moon missions
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The Artemis 1 mission crew 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 suggestion for the crew was that we had been in a very good place to go forward and proceed with the launch countdown,” Jeremy Parsons, deputy supervisor of NASA’s Exploration Floor Methods program at Kennedy House Middle 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 test flight atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in 2014. If all goes in accordance with plan, the mission would be the first in NASA’s new lunar exploration program that can 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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