NASA’s historic unmanned mission to the moon faces new difficulties. After technical problems thwarted two launch attempts a few weeks ago, a new launch of the Artemis 1 mission scheduled for Tuesday is now being threatened by a gathering storm in the Caribbean.
The storm, which has not yet been assigned a name, is
currently located south of the Dominican Republic.
However, it is expected to develop into a hurricane in the
coming days and move north to Florida, where the Kennedy Space Center is
located, from which the rocket is scheduled to launch.
“Our Plan A is to stay on course and launch the launch on
September 27,” Mike Bolger, head of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems, told
reporters on Friday. “But we realized that we really have to be careful and
think about a plan B.”
That would mean rolling the giant Space Launch System rocket
back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, known as the VAB.
“If we were to go down to Plan B, it would take us a few
days to deviate from our current tank test or launch configuration to roll back
and get back into the protection of the VAB,” Bolger said, adding that a
decision is up should be taken early afternoon on Saturday.
On the launch pad, the orange and white SLS rocket can
withstand gusts of wind of up to 137 kilometers per hour. But if it needs to be
protected, the current launch window, which runs until October 4th, will be missed.
The next launch window runs from October 17th to 31st with
one launch opportunity per day, except for October 24th to 26th and 28th.
A successful Artemis 1 mission will be a great relief to the
US space agency after years of delays and cost overruns. But another setback
would be a blow to NASA after two earlier launch attempts were aborted when the
rocket experienced technical failures, including a fuel leak.
The launch dates are dependent on NASA obtaining a special
exemption to avoid having to retest the batteries in an emergency flight system
used to destroy the rocket if it deviates from its intended range into a
populated area.
On Tuesday, the launch window opens at 11:37 a.m. local time
and lasts 70 minutes.
If the rocket launches that day, the mission will last 39
days before landing in the Pacific Ocean on November 5th.
The Artemis 1 space mission hopes to test the SLS, as well
as the unmanned Orion capsule that sits on it, in preparation for future lunar
voyages with humans on board.
Mannequins equipped with sensors represent the astronauts on
the mission and record acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.
The next mission, Artemis 2, will put astronauts in orbit
around the moon without landing on its surface.
The crew of Artemis 3 is not expected to land on the moon
before 2025 at the earliest.
A successful Artemis 1 mission will be a great relief to the
US space agency after years of delays and cost overruns. But another setback
would be a blow to NASA after two earlier launch attempts were aborted when the
rocket experienced technical failures, including a fuel leak.
The launch dates are dependent on NASA obtaining a special
exemption to avoid having to retest the batteries in an emergency flight system
used to destroy the rocket if it deviates from its intended range into a
populated area.
On Tuesday, the launch window opens at 11:37 a.m. local time
and lasts 70 minutes.
If the rocket launches that day, the mission will last 39
days before landing in the Pacific Ocean on November 5th.
The Artemis 1 space mission hopes to test the SLS, as well
as the unmanned Orion capsule that sits on it, in preparation for future lunar
voyages with humans on board.
Mannequins equipped with sensors represent the astronauts on
the mission and record acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.
The next mission, Artemis 2, will put astronauts in orbit
around the moon without landing on its surface.
The crew of Artemis 3 is not expected to land on the moon
before 2025 at the earliest.