This much-anticipated test flight of the Artemis 1 mission, with no crew on board, aims to test the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, as well as the Orion capsule, which will transport future astronauts.
The date will depend on whether engineering teams are able to successfully complete the SLS fuel tank test and whether they receive a special exemption to prevent further battery testing in the Emergency Missile Destruction System.
Without this exception, the rocket will have to return to the assembly building, which will delay the schedule by several weeks.
The launch window will open on September 27 at 11:37 a.m. local time for 70 minutes, and the mission is scheduled to end on November 5. NASA said on its blog that a possible second window is scheduled for October 2.
The launch of the new rocket on August 29, and again on September 3, was canceled due to technical problems, a setback that delays the actual start of the US Artemis lunar return program.
The SLS, a big orange and white car that has never flown before, has been in development for more than a decade.
In this first mission, Orion will venture up to 64,000 kilometers behind the moon, farther than any other manned spacecraft.
One of the main objectives of the mission is to test the capsule’s heat shield, the largest ever built. Returning to the Earth’s atmosphere, it will have to withstand a speed of 40,000 km / h and a temperature equal to half that recorded at the surface of the Sun.
The next mission, Artemis 2, in 2024, will take astronauts but will not land on the Moon. This honor will go to the Artemis 3 crew, which won’t be launched until 2025. After that, NASA expects to perform about one mission per year.
The US space agency’s plan is to build a lunar orbiting space station, called Gateway, and a lunar base.
NASA intends to test the technologies needed to send the first humans to Mars there: new suits, a vehicle to move or potential use of lunar water, among other goals.
According to Space Agency Administrator Bill Nelson, a multi-year round trip to Mars aboard Orion could be attempted in the late 2000s.
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