Green light for the fifth launch attempt of the Artemis 1 mission

After some mechanical and meteorological setbacks – which forced the launch to be postponed four times – NASA’s Artemis I mission is scheduled for this Wednesday, at 3 am Argentine time.

The green light was confirmed after inspections earlier today revealed no structural damage following Hurricane Nicole’s passage through Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for this Wednesday at 1:40 (00:40 GMT) with a two-hour launch window.

Seven hours before the scheduled time, the fuel tank of the Space Launch System (SLS), the monumental rocket in charge of launching the mission, will be filled.

Ten hours before the scheduled time, NASA channels began broadcasting content related to the operation, including any news on the status and evolution of the mission.

Great expectations for Artemis

Artemis will depart from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, with an inclination of 28.5 degrees towards the Equator.

The auspicious debut of the Orion spacecraft “mounted on the SLS rocket, considered the most powerful in the world”, underlines NASA, adds to the expectations for the imminent return of man to the moon.

It will also go farther than “any man-made spacecraft has ever flown.” 450,000 kilometers from Earth and 64,000 kilometers beyond the far side of the Moon.

At a time when the continuity of the International Space Station (ISS) is in question, the space agency seeks to broaden the horizons of its missions to build on our natural satellite.

The three parts of Artemis

Billed as an uncrewed test flight, Artemis I will be the first in a series of “increasingly complex” missions to develop a long-term human presence on the Moon. during the next decades.

The goals outlined by NASA for this first phase are intended to “demonstrate the capability of the Orion systems in a spaceflight environment and ensure safe reentry, descent, ditching and recovery.”

For this reason, in this first outing, astronauts will not travel, but two mannequins equipped with 5,600 sensors, which will measure the amount of radiation to which the astronauts could be exposed.

The first stage of the mission lasts three weeks and its return is scheduled for 11 December. Its goal is to use the satellite’s gravitational pull to propel itself into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, traveling approximately 2.1 million kilometers.

Orion will arrive with a speed of approx 40 thousand kilometers per hour. Earth’s atmosphere will dampen this acceleration up to 300 miles, producing temperatures of about 2,800 degrees.

If the rocket and capsule pass the test, the Artemis 2 mission will travel with astronauts to lunar orbit in 2024. The first two astronauts to set foot on the lunar surface, including a woman, will be part of the Artemis 3 mission, the whose beginning date is marked on the almanac for 2025.

What will the launch be like?

At the end of the launch, the thrusters will detach and the central stage of the launch system will separate from the spacecraft, leaving Orion attached to an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) which will propel it towards the Moon.

This is a maneuver known as a “translunar injection” in which a point around the moon is precisely targeted to guide Orion close enough to be captured by the lunar gravity.

Two hours after departure, Orion will separate from this leg to continue its journey to the Moon powered by a European Space Agency (ESA) module that will correct course if necessary along the way.

The multiple delays

The initial launch of Artemis 1 was scheduled for late August, but power issues caused the first delay.

The arrival of Hurricane Ian resulted in further delays as NASA moved the Artemis 1 SLS stack from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to custody in the massive Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

After being returned to the pad on Nov. 4, the SLS had to weather Hurricane Nicole, which subjected the vehicle to high winds as it weakened to a tropical storm shortly after landfall.

The reason there were such long intervals between launch attempts is due to the rotation of the Earth and the position of the Moon.

Taking off a rocket under certain circumstances requires much less fuel than under others. If a release misses its window, it typically can’t be re-released the next day.