“With our three attempts, we do have issues with that timing,” said Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager in NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems program. That includes conducting a launch no more than 20 days after a final test of the system. One complication for launch planning is the batteries for the rocket’s flight termination system (FTS). Both support all the mission objectives of testing the launch vehicle and spacecraft, with a particular emphasis on demonstrating Orion’s heat shield on a reentry at lunar return velocities. “We don’t have a strong preference of whether it’s a short- or long-class mission,” said Mike Sarafin, NASA Artemis mission manager. 17.Īll three are considered “long-class” missions by NASA, while launch opportunities on other days instead support shorter missions lasting about four weeks. Eastern for 90 minutes, and would result in a 42-day mission splashing down Oct. Eastern for two hours, and would result in a 39-day mission splashing down Oct. Eastern for two hours, and would result in a 42-day mission ending with a splashdown Oct. The three launch dates have different launch windows and mission durations: 18, although a final decision on proceeding with a launch attempt would come only after a flight readiness review about a week before launch. If those preparations remain on schedule, the vehicle would roll back out to Launch Complex 39B around Aug. With those repairs complete, he said he was more confident about being ready for those dates.įree and other NASA officials on the call cautioned they still had work to perform on both SLS and Orion to get the vehicles ready for launch. “That actually gave us a little pause of wondering if we were going to be able to make a launch date on those three dates,” Free said. That required going into the rocket’s engine section to tighten the fitting. That included work to fix a liquid hydrogen leak on the core stage found during that test.ĭuring that work, technicians discovered a loose fitting, called a collet, where the liquid hydrogen umbilical connects to the rocket. “We think we’re on a good path to get to attempts on those dates,” Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, said on the call.Ĭrews have been working on SLS and Orion since it returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) July 2 after the fourth wet dress rehearsal test, where the rocket was loaded with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants and put through a practice countdown. Orion will spend up to six weeks in cislunar space before splashing down off the coast of San Diego. 5 for the Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft and the first launch of the SLS. high, the SLS is also a “Moon rocket” with 8.8 million pounds (3.9 million kg) of thrust.Īrtemis I is the first of three missions on the schedule, with Artemis II in 2024 slated to take four crew and Artemis III due to take two astronauts to the lunar surface in 2025 or later.WASHINGTON - NASA has reserved three days in late August and early September for the first launch of its Space Launch System rocket to send the Orion spacecraft to orbit around the moon and back.Īt a July 20 briefing, NASA officials announced that they had target launch dates of Aug. The SLS is a largest rocket ever constructed-and that includes the agency’s Saturn V “Moon rocket,” which was last used in 1973. It will then return for an even closer flyby the Moon on its way home. That’s farther than any spacecraft built for astronauts has ever flown. Orion will enter an elliptical orbit of the Moon that will see them get to within 62 miles above its surface and about 40,000 miles beyond it. When Artemis I does finally lift-off it will embark on a 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) journey around the Moon and back again. The previous scrub on August 29 had been due to a faulty sensor on an engine cooling system. Planned launches in late August and early September were both scrubbed due to technical problems before Hurricane Ian prevented a launch attempts in late September and early October.Īrtemis I failed to launch for the second time on Septemfrom Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the SLS suffered a leak in a liquid hydrogen valve.
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