11/27/2023 0 Comments Artemis launch today![]() It's believed there may be ice deposits in lunar craters near the pole, and future astronauts may be able to "mine" that ice if it's present and accessible, converting it into air, water and even rocket fuel to vastly reduce the cost of deep space exploration. The first woman and the next man could step onto the lunar surface in the 2025-26 timeframe. That would be followed by the first astronaut landing in nearly 50 years, near the south pole. NASA plans to follow the Artemis 1 mission by launching four astronauts on a looping around-the-moon flight in 2024. Meanwhile, propellants are flowing into the core stage oxygen and hydrogen tanks and engineers are making preparations to begin loading the rocket's upper stage. The hydrogen leak occurred around a seal in the quick-disconnect. Propellant enters the rocket on the opposite side of the core stage as picture here, using quick-disconnect fittings that allow the umbilicals to pull away at liftoff. The base of the SLS rocket's core stage, flanked by two solid-fuel rocket boosters, houses four shuttle-era engines. Uncertainty about engine cooling Monday was a major contributor to a launch scrub. That helped the seal to "seat" properly and engineers were able to restart hydrogen loading.īut the starts and stops in the fueling process have delayed the so-called "kickstart bleed," a procedure to flow liquid hydrogen through the RS-25 engine plumbing to condition them to the low-temperature propellant before they're fired up for launch. 17 and runs through Halloween.Īfter detecting a leak at a seal in an 8-inch quick-disconnect fitting where liquid hydrogen propellant enters the base of the Space Launch System rocket, engineers stopped fuel loading and worked through a procedure to warm up the components to allow temperature to equalize. The available launch periods are based on the constantly changing positions of the Earth and moon, the desired lunar orbit for the Orion spacecraft and the power of the SLS rocket to put it on the resulting trajectory. Monday is an available target date as is Tuesday, although the latter option would have a shorter window.Įither way, if the SLS isn't off the pad by Tuesday, the rocket will have to be hauled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to service batteries in its self-destruct system, a requirement that has nothing to do with the hydrogen leak. NASA managers said earlier a launch attempt Sunday was possible, but only if propellants were not loaded aboard the rocket. It's not yet known whether any repair attempts will be attempted or whether any additional launch attempts can be made before the current lunar launch period expires Sept. EDT, about 25 minutes after the team recommended "no go" for launch. Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson called off today's countdown after multiple unsuccessful attempts to stop a hydrogen leak in an 8-inch quick-disconnect fitting at the base of the SLS core stage. But we're going to show up, and we're going to try, and we're going to give it our best." "There's no guarantee we're going to get off (Saturday). ![]() "We've got a whole host of things that could cause us to not get off on any given day," mission manager Mike Sarafin told reporters at a Thursday evening news conference. The SLS rocket - the most powerful booster NASA and its contractors have ever built - has 489 launch commit criteria that have to be met to permit a liftoff. The Space Launch System moon rocket atop pad 39B on Monday morning, August 29, 2022, awaiting blastoff on a mission to send an uncrewed Orion capsule on a 42-day shakedown flight beyond the moon and back. ![]() Launch was initially scheduled for Monday morning, but NASA ran into problems during fueling, forcing the agency to scrub just as the launch window was opening. The Saturday launch, however, was canceled due to a hydrogen leak. EDT Saturday, setting the stage for blastoff at 2:17 p.m., the opening of a two-hour window. With a forecast calling for a 60% chance of favorable weather, engineers began fueling the Space Launch System rocket at around 6 a.m. NASA scrubbed its second attempt to launch its Artemis 1 test flight on a long-awaited mission to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a 37-day trip around the moon and back.
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