NASA launched its massive Artemis I moon rocket early Wednesday, bringing the United States a step closer to landing on the lunar surface for the first time in 50 years since the end of the Apollo program.
According Florida Today, NASA teams fueled the 322-foot Space Launch System rocket with liquid hydrogen and oxygen at 3:50 p.m. EST, just over nine hours ahead of liftoff. The launch was scheduled for 1:04 a.m. EST Wednesday, giving NASA a two-hour window to send the ship into orbit, but technical problems delayed the launch time. After all elements were polled a “go,” the rocket launched at 1:47 a.m.
“For the Artemis generation, this is for you,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said before liftoff, referring to young people who were not alive for Apollo.
As USA Today reports, the launch has been scrubbed and delayed four times this year – twice because of technical problems, once for a hurricane and once for a tropical storm. At about 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, NASA reported an intermittent hydrogen leak on the rocket’s core stage, causing many to wonder if another postponement was looming. But about half an hour later, Blackwell-Thompson gave a “go” for the specialized “red team” to enter the launch pad to troubleshoot the problem.
While the red team completed the hydrogen repair by 11 p.m., NASA then reported a technical issue involving a radar. The determined NASA Range Safety Operations crew was able to replace an Ethernet switch, a type of networking hardware, by 12:30 p.m. Teams were moving forward, but more testing was needed.
The Artemis I launch will send a new, empty capsule around the moon for the first time in 50 years. This first test flight is expected to last four to six weeks and will end with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The last time NASA sent astronauts to the moon was in December 1972 on Apollo 17 to close out the Apollo program. The Apollo 17 mission was much shorter compared with the estimated duration of the Artemis mission. From launch to splashdown, Apollo 17 mission time was 12 days, 13 hours, and 52 minutes. Artemis I is expected to fly 26 to 42 days.
Artemis I is the first part of the $4.1 billion Artemis mission, where its current goal is to complete a lunar orbit. The mission marks the debut of the Space Launch System rocket, also known as SLS. The SLS will produce a maximum of 8.8 million pounds of thrust, “exerting more power than any rocket ever,” according to NASA.
The current mission is an uncrewed Orion spacecraft, stacked atop the rocket, that will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, flying farther than any craft built for humans, according to NASA. Orion is a larger and more complex successor to the Apollo craft. After liftoff, Orion will fly a 1.3 million-mile journey for roughly a month to lunar orbit and back.
The reason that this initial launch is without a crew is so that NASA can test the ship’s propulsion and navigation systems, along with Orion’s life-support systems, according to NASA. Aboard the unpiloted spacecraft will be three mannequins.
A successful return to Earth will let NASA determine whether astronauts can fly in the capsule for a similar mission, Artemis II, in 2024. Artemis III would put two astronauts on the moon’s surface a year or two later. The Artemis missions intend to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon, NASA says.
The purpose of the missions is to explore the lunar surface more than ever before and establish the first long-term presence (i.e. sustainable life) on the moon, according to NASA. Scientific discoveries made on and around the moon will be used to prepare for missions to Mars and the hope of sending the first astronauts to the Red Planet.
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