NASA has confirmed a new date for the launch of the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule, fulfilling the Artemis I Mission that will mark the US return to missions dedicated to the Moon.
Previously scheduled for this past Monday (29th) and initially postponed to September 02nd after a rocket failure, now NASA has declared that it will launch on Saturday (03/08rd), with the window opening at 13:48 pm, and launch scheduled to take place at 15:17 pm.
According to NASA, on August 29, before launch, the rocket's RS-25 engines were not in the suitable temperature range needed to start the engines before liftoff, so the Artemis team ran out of time in the two-hour launch window.
The Space Launch System's (SLS) four RS-25 engines must be thermally conditioned before super-cold propellant begins to flow through them for liftoff.
Control center controllers condition them by increasing pressure in the midstage liquid hydrogen tank to direct, or “bleed off,” as it is often called, a portion of the liquid hydrogen that is approximately -213°C to the engines.
The reason is to leave the engines cold before ignition, which will raise the temperature of the material by tens of degrees Celsius in a few seconds. If the launch were carried out with the engines at room temperature, possibly the material would not the entire cycle of use.
The suspicion is that a problem in Engine 3 is related to the reading of a sensor, and not in the triggering mechanism of the temperature regulator, valves or turbopumps.
Crews also saw a hydrogen leak in a component of the rocket's service mast umbilical quick-disconnect, called the purge canister, and managed the leak by manually adjusting propellant flow rates.
To the Moon on First Launch
In this mission, NASA's goal is to collect as much data as possible with a flight that will orbit the Earth and the Moon, with a forecast to return to planet Earth on October 10, if the launch takes place on Monday (29).
For six days, the Orion capsule will orbit our planet's natural satellite, the Moon, before returning to an Earth orbit completing the 42-day scientific mission.
In order for the agency not to say that it is dumping fuel without a total purpose, the rocket also carries 13 small experimental satellites, produced by universities in the country, and the capsule will go up into space with scientific experiments.
Since 2021, NASA has carried out tests with the SLS rocket for the Artemis I mission, in recent days the rocket has been positioned at its launch base, the historic PAD 39B of the Kennedy Space Center, the place responsible for transporting astronauts in the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs.
The Artemis I mission is a test flight without a crew, the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to the Moon. NASA's goal is to put a man on the moon by 2024, and in 2023 the Artemis II mission will make a lunar orbital flight with astronauts.
The SLS project that lasted several years without flying
This NASA project costs about $2,5 billion a year and is gaining more investment and testing. The SLS was supposed to be the replacement for the Space Shuttle, along with the Saturn V's ability to fly interplanetary missions, however, there were several delays in development.
The RS-25 engine powers the center stage of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's new large rocket. In total, there are four engines on this stage, marking the largest and most powerful central stage ever built, when we consider the concept of using boosters, taken from the Space Shuttle launcher, during launch.
The Space Shuttle was also equipped with RS-25 engines, but without all the burning power and duration of the SLS's center stage, which provides a larger fuel tank.
The central stage used in the first flight is being assembled for now, it has the height of a building with more than 20 floors and the capacity to carry more than 2 million and 600 thousand liters of fuel, the RS-25 uses only LOX (Liquid Oxygen ) and LH (Liquid Hydrogen) for propulsion, this is one of the most efficient forms of propulsion in the world, with no waste generation and great explosive power.
In addition to carrying all that fuel, the central stage still has space for the engines and their underlying systems, such as turbo-pumps and computers. Who is being responsible for building this is Boeing, which uses a robot to weld the parts.
It is worth ing that the SLS uses the same rocket concept as the Space Shuttle launcher and the Delta IV Heavy, with two solid propellant boosters on the sides. These boosters increase the rocket's initial acceleration, when all the weight has to overcome the gravitational pull, as the solid propellant burns powerfully and quickly. In the photo above we can locate the SRB through the lateral structure in white.
Rocket that will send men to the moon
The rocket SpaceX's Starship was selected by NASA to participate in the Artemis program, which focuses on sending humans back to the Moon.
Within the Artemis program, it will be NASA's first focused on taking humans to the Moon since the Apollo program, in the 60's/70's. SpaceX's rocket will be the first to take humans to the Moon after the Saturn V, according to the company.
At the same time, NASA said it is continuing development of the SLS, its new rocket that is actually based on the thrusters used in the Space Shuttle program.
NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft for their multi-day journey into lunar orbit. There, two crew will transfer to SpaceX's Human Landing System (HLS) for the final leg of their journey to the moon's surface.
That is, the SpaceX rocket that will actually be used to land on the Moon.
After approximately a week of exploring the surface, they will board the lander for their short trip back to orbit, from where they will return to NASA's Orion, along with other astronauts, before returning to Earth.
The scheme using landing and navigation modules is very similar to the Apollo Program, however, there are now two rockets involved in each mission.
The Starship development contract under the Artemis program has a total value of US$2,89 billion, and was recently signed between the agency and SpaceX.
A US Air Force is also interested in launches with Starship, just as SpaceX plans to use the rocket to initially place 2nd generation Starlink satellites into orbit. Sending men to Mars is a deeper hole for Elon Musk.
