The Kennedy Space Center in Florida is set to launch the first Moon rocket by NASA in fifty years as early as August 29.
As part of the agency’s Artemis I mission, which aims to land American astronauts back on the moon, NASA is prepping the launch of the unmanned Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule.
The technologies that might someday enable a landing on Mars are being tested on this expedition.
The Space Launch System, often known as SLS, is the centerpiece of Artemis I and is NASA’s largest rocket project since Saturn V.
Launchpad 39B will be used for the SLS launch on August 29 at 8:33 a.m. Eastern time. The launch window is two hours.
The other potential launch dates are September 2 and 5, in case weather causes the launch to miss the window.
If all goes according to plan, NASA aims to launch Artemis II in 2023, performing a manned flyover of the Moon’s surface before launching Artemis III, which would bring American astronauts to the Moon’s surface in 2025.
For a voyage to the Moon, NASA intends to deploy the most powerful rocket the world has ever seen.
The technologies that might someday enable a Mars landing are being tested on this trip.
Launchpad 39B will be used for the SLS launch on August 29 at 8:33 a.m. Eastern time. There is a two-hour launch window.
Commander Moonikin Campos will be buckled into the commander’s seat as a memorial to electrical engineer Arturo Campos, who was instrumental in ensuring the successful return of the Apollo 13 mission to Earth in 1970.
The rocket is very weather-sensitive, so before approving the launch, NASA must take temperature, window, and rain into account.
While the general hazard from lightning seems to be modest, this onshore flow regime will encourage sporadic showers throughout the Atlantic seas across the launch window, according to the Launch Mission Execution Forecast.
The Launch Weather officer said that the Cumulus Cloud Rule, Surface Electric Fields Rule, and the Flight Through Precipitation limitation would be the main weather issues for a Monday morning attempt.
An autonomous launch may not be affected by circumstances that would ordinarily force a human launch to be canceled, according to a NASA spokeswoman.
Beginning in 2025 and continuing until the end of the decade, the Artemis project will see humans make a lunar landing every year. By that time, the Artemis project’s cost would have risen to $93 billion.
On the lunar South Pole, the astronauts will erect a space station and a base. The technological advancements made during this trip will help NASA achieve its ultimate objective, a human journey to Mars. These missions are scheduled during the first part of 2040.
Around 10,000 spectators are anticipated, many of whom will gather at Space View Park in Titusville and Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral to see the launch in person.
To represent NASA’s desire to send a woman to the Moon in the near future, the rocket will carry fake crew, including a female.
Since the project’s conception, the budget has grown significantly. According to estimates from 2012, the SLC would cost $6 billion to construct and each launch would cost $500 million.
According to CNBC, the cost of building the rocket was $20 billion as of August 2022, while the cost of launching it was $4.1 billion.
In 2024, Artemis II will make a lunar flyby with four men aboard if Artemis I is a success and hover 60 miles above the Moon’s surface. Astronauts are anticipated to walk on the Moon by 2025.
The Inspector General of NASA said earlier this year that a more achievable goal for human Moon landings is 2026.
If all goes according to plan, the first lunar mission since Apollo 17 will launch into orbit from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center in a week.
2019 image of a Chinese rover that has just landed on the Moon. The country aspires to one day build a base on the moon’s surface.
The Moon landing mission will be called Artemis III, and it may include a SpaceX spacecraft, according to Elon Musk. NASA gave Musk a $2.9 billion contract to work on the project in 2021.
The first humans to set foot on the surface since 1972 would be those astronauts.
The SLS resembles the space shuttle in that it has two solid rocket boosters on each side, each of which is filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen.
When completely fuelled, the SLS will weigh 5.7 million pounds. The rockets give it a push of about nine million pounds. This is almost 15% more than the Saturn V. It can carry 27 tons to the Moon and 90 tons into Earth orbit.
The SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever launched once Artemis I is launched. Block 1 refers to the rocket’s present design. The next revision will be known as Block 1B.
It will be launched with the Orion module, which is over 320 feet tall and holds over 700,000 gallons of cryogenic fuel.
The Lockheed-Martin Orion landing vehicle will be used to transport humans to the Moon. Although it resembles the early Apollo astronauts’ landing craft in appearance, it is larger on the inside and has the newest technological advancements.
Without docking, astronauts may stay alive inside the capsule for up to 21 days.
The Orion, like its Apollo predecessor, includes a heat-shield to insulate the astronauts from the friction of re-entering the atmosphere.
The spacecraft will safely return people to Earth in the Pacific Ocean near Baja California by using parachutes to slow it down as it descends from 25,000 miles per hour to around 20 miles per hour.
The Artemis I mission will travel 1.3 million miles over the course of its 42-day duration. Its main goal is to make that the rocket operates as intended before humans embark in 2023.
At the Kennedy Space Center, the NASA Artemis rocket with the Orion spacecraft onboard is now stationary on pad 39B.
The Orion will be launched by the SLS and will orbit the Moon at a height of around 60 miles throughout the mission. Three mannequins will be on board as NASA tries to determine how the journey will affect the human body.
Importantly, NASA scientists will keep an eye on how the Orion handles its return to Earth when it re-enters the atmosphere at 30 times the speed of sound after the mission.
According to NASA representatives, the mission’s most crucial component is testing Orion’s heat shield.
The only way to test this ablative heat shield, according to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, is to send it into space and let it to return at 32 Mach, he stated during a news conference on August 3.
Orion will return to Earth quicker and hotter than any previous spaceship, he said.
Around 10,000 spectators are anticipated, many of whom will gather at Space View Park in Titusville and Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral, to see the launch.
Live streams of the launch will be available on NASA.gov, NASA TV on YouTube, and through the organization’s social media profiles.
Space enthusiasts may “pinpoint where Orion is and follow its distance from the Earth, distance from the Moon, mission length, and more” by visiting the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW), which offers pictures, data, and the most recent news.