NASA will attempt for the third time to send the Artemis I mission to the Moon, the first uncrewed flight test that seeks to return to the satellite after 50 years and pave the way to establish a long-term human presence, while thousands of tourists travel to the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, United States, to witness the launch of the most powerful rocket in history.
“Our time will come, and we hope it will be tomorrow (for this Wednesday),” said mission manager Mike Sarafin, who praised “the perseverance” of his teams after two failed takeoff attempts due to two hurricanes.
Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, this unmanned test flight, which will fly over the Moon without landing on its surface, seeks to confirm whether the vehicle is safe for a future crewaccording to the AFP agency.
Despite the fact that it is a night launch, about 100,000 people are expected to admire the spectacleparticularly from the surrounding beaches.
Andrew Trombley, a space enthusiast from St. Louis, Missouri, is anxiously awaiting a successful liftoff after several futile launch trips. “I was too young for the Apollo missions, so … I wanted to be here in person,” he said.
The launch has drawn hordes of tourists as well as locals.
The complex refueling operations take place at the Kennedy Space Center, and will be commanded by Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first female launch director.
The orange rocket will be filled with 2.7 million liters of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During the boreal summer, a hydrogen leak caused the second attempt to be canceled at the last minute.
Despite recent damage to the rocket from Hurricane Nicole, the US space agency plans to launch Artemis I on Wednesday during a two-hour window that opens at 1:04 a.m. EST (3:04 a.m. local time). from Argentina).
If the Apollo program made Neil Armstrong the first human being to set foot on the Moon in 1969, NASA now seeks to bring “the first woman and first person of color” by 2025, according to reports.
The first launch attempts on August 29 and September 3 were canceled after engineers detected cooling problems with an engine. and they were unable to repair a hydrogen leak in the fueling phase of the rocket.
Then, the mission had to be postponed again at the end of September due to the passage of Hurricane Ian and, finally, it was set to launch this Wednesday after pushing the date back two days due to the advance of Hurricane Nicole.
NASA’s ambitious plan
NASA’s most ambitious plan to explore the Moon will begin this Wednesday. If the weather and technical conditions are good, the Artemis I mission, which is already on the Cape Canaveral launch pad -on the east coast of the United States- will have a total duration of 25 days, 11 hours, 36 minutes.
According to the latest weather reports, a 90% chance of favorable weather conditions is forecast for the launch.
It took 50 years since the last time a man walked on Earth’s satellite, in 1972, for NASA to create the continuation of the Apollo program and name it Artemis in honor of Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon, hunting and nature in Greek mythology.
Artemis I is the first integrated test of deep space exploration systems consisting of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System (SLS) and the ground systems at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that will maintain communication as the spacecraft moves towards the Moon.
NASA’s most powerful rocket with a height of 98 meters will be used for takeoff, so thousands of people are expected to travel to witness the spectacular launch.
We are in full countdown to make history!
Tonight, @NASA_SLS will take off with @NASA_Orion, which will make an unmanned flight around the Moon. The launch of #Artemis I is scheduled for 1:04 am EST (6:04 UTC). The launch window is two hours. pic.twitter.com/HsGIZKpXWA— NASA in Spanish (@NASA_es) November 15, 2022
According to local media reports, Hurricane Nicole damaged many drops to the beach along the coast and they are still closed, which will make it difficult for spectators to watch the takeoff.
Meanwhile, local authorities have asked tourists to arrive early to find parking and a way to get to the beach.
unmanned flight
Once lifted off, Orion is expected to fly further than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown, 450,000 km from Earth, and return to our planet on December 11 to plunge into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.
As the flight is unmanned, the dummy “Moonikin Campos” will travel in the commander’s seat, named in memory of Arturo Campos, the engineer who played a key role in the safe return of Apollo 13 to Earth.
Moonikin will be dressed in the full astronaut suit and will be accompanied by two torsos named Helga and Zohar, who will occupy the bottom two seats of the ship and measure the space radiation astronauts may experience.
Only by 2024 is the first manned mission with four astronauts expected, the Artemis IIwhich will also sail around the Moon, and Artemis III is expected to be the mission that will bring humans back to the Moon in 2025, when four astronauts will land on the unexplored surface of the lunar south pole.
But everything will depend on how the test launch turns out, which for the moment counts down smoothly, while all elements of the rocket and spacecraft are already turned on.
After the Saturn V rocket of the Apollo missions, and the space shuttles, the SLS should usher NASA into a new era of human exploration in deep space.
NASA wants to launch about one mission each year to establish a constant human presence on the Moon.build the Gateway space station to orbit around it, and set up a base on the lunar surface.
The goal is to test new equipment there, such as space suits, pressurized vehicles, mini power plants, and use the frozen water, in an effort to establish a lasting human presence.
This experiment would serve as preparation for a manned trip to Mars, towards the end of the 2030s.. A round trip that will take at least two years
Full coverage of the launch in Spanish will begin this morning at 2:00 a.m. Argentine time on NASA’s official YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2uianZ1bik).
