NASA has two new launch windows for Artemis-1, the first on September 23, the second on September 27. Hope all goes well for the SLS Mega Rocket.
Sending a rocket into space is not easy. After two failed attempts due to technical problems, the NASA announced that it will try once more to launch its mega rocket bound for the Moon September 23 or 27. A long-awaited flight without a crew on board which should make it possible to test the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion capsule (which will welcome the astronauts).
NASA has two new launch windows for Artemis-1
To be more precise, these two firing windows are as follows: September 23 from 12:47 p.m. (French time) and September 27 from 5:37 p.m. (French time). These dates were chosen to avoid a conflict with the NAS DART mission which will see a spacecraft collide with an asteroid on September 26 to deflect it from its trajectory. These two missions use the same international network of antennas, Deep Space Network.
The first on September 23, the second on September 27
It should be noted that these dates envisaged by the American space agency are still subject to a special dispensation which will allow NASA to avoid retesting the batteries on an emergency destruction system in the event that it moves away from its trajectory and would be heading towards a populated area. Without this waiver, the rocket will have to return to assembly, and that will push the schedule back several weeks.
Hope all goes well for the SLS Mega Rocket
The takeoff had been canceled last saturday for the second time in a week, due to a fuel leak problem. The SLS rocket, in development for more than a decade, has never flown. It must become the most powerful in the world.
Fifty years following the last apollo mission, Artemis-1 will focus on checking the Orion capsule, which will carry astronauts to the Moon. And for this first mission, Orion will go 64,000 kilometers behind the Moon, further than any other habitable spacecraft to date. The main objective is to test its heat shield, which will have to withstand a speed of 40,000 km/h and a temperature half as high as that of the surface of the Sun. Let’s hope the operation can take place and that everything goes well.
