After calling off the scheduled liftoff of its Artemis 1 lunar mission on Aug. 29, NASA prepared for a second attempt on Saturday. Ground teams at Kennedy Space Center have begun fueling their New Moon rocket for liftoff on a test flight that should go well before the astronauts can ascend.
For the second time this week, the launch team began loading nearly 1 million gallons of fuel into the 322-foot (98-meter) rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA. Monday’s attempt was called off due to a bad engine sensor and leaking fuel.
As the sun rose, an over-pressure alarm sounded and the tanking operation was briefly halted, but no damage was done and efforts resumed, NASA launch control informed of.
NASA wants to send the crew capsule atop the rocket around the Moon, pushing it to the limit before the astronauts can get on their next flight. If the five-week demo with the test dummy is successful, astronauts could fly around the Moon in 2024 and land on it in 2025. People last walked on the moon 50 years ago.
Forecasters expected generally favorable weather at Kennedy Space Center, particularly at the end of the two-hour afternoon launch window.
At the same time, the rocket’s lead engineers expressed confidence in tighter fuel lines and process changes.
On Monday, a sensor indicated that one of the four engines was too hot, but engineers later verified that it was actually quite cold. The launch team this time planned to ignore the faulty sensor and rely on other equipment to properly cool each main engine.
Before igniting, the main engines must be cooled to minus -420 °F (minus-250 °C) similar to the flowing liquid hydrogen fuel. If not, the resulting damage may result in sudden engine shutdown and flight cancellation.
Mission managers acknowledged the engine issue as well as the additional risk posed by a different problem: cracks in the rocket’s insulating foam. But he acknowledged that other problems could indicate another delay.
That didn’t stop thousands of people from jamming the coast to watch the Space Launch System rocket soar. Local officials expected huge crowds due to the long Labor Day holiday weekend.
$4.1 billion test flight. is the first step in NASA’s Artemis Program Renewed lunar exploration, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology.
The last time twelve astronauts walked on the Moon was in 1972 during NASA’s Apollo program.
Artemis – years behind schedule and billions in budget – aims to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon, with the crew eventually spending weeks at a time. It is considered to be the training ground of Mars.
The interesting thing is that the US space agency will send a ipad Artemis aboard an unmanned spacecraft called Orion on the 1st Moon mission. According to a report by 9to5Mac, the Apple iPad will be part of Callisto and help test Amazon’s digital voice assistant Alexa on the Orion.
(with inputs from AP)
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