The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is set to make another attempt to launch the Artemis I lunar mission on Saturday. The announcement was made a day after the space agency aborted the launch of its powerful Space Launch System (SLS) Moon rocket. This will be the debut of the SLS rocket which will carry the Orion capsule, for what would be a more than month-long journey around the moon..
Nasa will make a second attempt to launch Artemis I on September 3 at 11:47 pm IST. As per a CNBC report, NASA has a two-hour long launch window, meaning it could lift off at any time within the window.
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Why was the initial launch postponed?
On Monday morning, NASA was set to launch the SLS rocket with nearly 1 million gallons of super-cold hydrogen and oxygen fuel. However, NASA repeatedly stopped and started the fuelling of the rocket because of a leak of highly explosive hydrogen. The leak was caused in the same place where a seepage occurred during a rehearsal earlier this year.
Later, NASA ran into more trouble as it was unable to properly chill one of the rocket's four RS-25 engines. While the engineers continued to work to pinpoint the source of the problem the space agency announced the postponement of the launch.
No astronauts were inside the SLS rocket’s Orion capsule. It only carried test dummies, fitted with sensors to measure vibration, cosmic radiation, and other conditions, during the shakedown flight. The space mission was meant to stress-test the spacecraft and push it to the limits in ways that would never be attempted with humans aboard.
The Artemis 1 mission
The Artemis 1 represents NASA's first of several upcoming and increasingly complex missions, all under its Artemis Moon programme. The programme aims to build a long-term human presence on the Moon in the coming years and build a new lunar space station.
The first uncrewed flight will see the debut of the space agency’s most powerful rocket ever assembled, the SLS rocket. It will mark the beginning of the Artemis lunar program, which is expected to land the astronauts on the moon by its third mission in 2025.
Under the Artemis programme, NASA aims to send the first woman and first person of colour to the lunar surface, for a period of six weeks.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
First Published: Aug 31, 2022 12:50 PM IST
