NASA will conduct a vital fueling take a look at of its Artemis 1 moon rocket at present (Sept. 21), and you may watch it stay.
Technicians are scheduled to start loading supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants into Artemis 1’s Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket at present at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT). Watch it stay right here at House.com, courtesy of NASA, or instantly through the space company.
Artemis 1 will use the SLS to launch an Orion capsule on an uncrewed journey to lunar orbit and again from NASA’s Kennedy House Middle in Florida. The take a look at flight was imagined to carry off late final month however was delayed twice by glitches, the second of which was a liquid hydrogen leak that occurred throughout the leadup to a deliberate liftoff on Sept. 3.
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The Artemis 1 group replaced two seals on the website of the leak, a “fast disconnect” linking the SLS core stage with a gasoline line from its cell launch tower. At the moment’s take a look at will assist decide if that repair labored. If all goes properly, the mission will stay on observe to launch on Sept. 27, with a backup alternative on Oct. 2.
It is unclear how lengthy at present’s take a look at will final; in an update on Friday (opens in new tab) (Sept. 16), NASA officers wrote that it “will conclude when the targets for the take a look at have been met.”
The fueling take a look at is not the one spaceflight motion on faucet for at present. A Russian Soyuz rocket is scheduled to launch cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio towards the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:54 a.m. EDT (1354 GMT). You possibly can watch that right here at House.com as properly when the time comes.
Artemis 1 is the primary mission in NASA’s Artemis program, which goals to ascertain a long-term human presence on and round the moon by the tip of the 2020s. If all goes properly with Artemis 1, Artemis 2 will launch astronauts on a visit across the moon in 2024 and Artemis 3 will land individuals close to the lunar south pole a 12 months or two later.
Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a ebook in regards to the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).