The POT Tomorrow, Saturday, from Cape Canaveral (Florida), a new attempt will be made to launch the unmanned lunar mission Artemis I into space, which marks the beginning of the race for a future colonization of the terrestrial satellite.
The objective of the mission is to test the capabilities of the powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, 98 meters high, and the Orion spacecraft, with capacity for four astronauts, according to a report from Eph.
LiveNow: @NASAArtemis leaders provide a launch and weather update for the #Artemis I flight test around the Moon, set for no earlier than Sept. 3, 2:17 p.m. EDT (18:17 UTC). https://t.co/1eEyQdQVCt
— NASA (@NASA) September 2, 2022
The launch window opens at 2:17 p.m. local time (6:17 p.m. GMT) on Saturday the third, and if for technical, meteorological or other reasons the takeoff has to be delayed again, the next attempt will be made on Monday the fifth. September.
It is expected that, as happened on August 29, when a first attempt had to be canceled due to a failure in one of the four RS-25 engines of the powerful SLS rocket, the so-called “Coast of Space”, the region where they are located the space center is filled with visitors eager to watch the launch, the source notes.
If the launch takes place on Saturday and there are no unforeseen events in the mission, Orion will splash down in the Pacific Ocean west of San Diego (California) on October 11. The Artemis I mission management team, after reviewing the status of operations Thursday afternoon, gave the go-ahead for launch.
US Space Force meteorologists are forecasting 60% favorable weather conditions, which will improve throughout the window by Saturday.
Following the historic Artemis I mission, NASA has two more Artemis missions planned. The second will be a manned trip to the Moon and the third will put the first crew in more than 50 years on the surface of the Earth’s satellite.
NASA’s Apollo 17 mission, launched in December 1972, was the last in which American astronauts traveled to the Moon and walked on its surface.
With information from Eph.
