![]() ![]() This is a new type of astronaut,” Bill Nelson, the Nasa administrator and a former space shuttle astronaut, told a press briefing earlier this month. That mission almost 50 years ago also carried the final two of only 12 people, all men, ever to have set foot on the moon, Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan. Orion is uncrewed, other than mannequins that will allow Nasa to evaluate its next-generation spacesuits and radiation levels, and a Snoopy soft toy that will float around the capsule as a zero gravity indicator.īut a successful mission would propel the agency closer to its goal of sending two astronauts, including the first woman, for landing at the moon’s south pole by the end of 2025, while up to two others remain in lunar orbit in a command module.Īn interim second test flight, Artemis II, is scheduled for May 2024, carrying a crew of four to the moon and back, although not landing, and sending humans beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Monday’s scheduled test flight, which has a two-hour launch window and will last 42 days on a 1.3m-mile odyssey to 40,000 miles beyond the far side of the moon and back, includes two close fly-bys 62 miles above the lunar surface. “We are a go for launch, which is outstanding.” “We don’t have an answer yet, but we recognize we want to look at it and make some intensive and intentional decisions.“This day has been a long time coming,” Nasa’s associate administrator Robert Cabana said after mission managers concluded a flight readiness review this week. “We are brainstorming different options,” he said. Parsons said he’s started a study to look at options to be able to access the FTS batteries while at the pad. The waivers were necessary because the FTS system, notably its batteries, cannot be accessed at the pad. “We have not entertained going to back to them just yet.” The current FTS certification period would cover the first three launch opportunities in November. “It was a one-time deal,” said John Honeycutt, NASA SLS program manager, of those waivers. Space Force, which operates the Eastern Range SLS launches from, to what was originally a 20-day life for the FTS.ĭespite those earlier waivers, the FTS has the same certified life for this launch attempt. Delays in earlier SLS launch attempts required NASA to request, and ultimately obtain, waivers from the U.S. That includes setting up the flight termination system (FTS) on the SLS core stage. Workers are in what Parsons described as the “final phases of closeouts” on the vehicle to prepare for the rollout of Nov. And, I think we have a team that’s been put through their paces a number of times and, every single time, gets better,” Parsons said. I think we’ve got the hardware in excellent shape. “I think we have good procedures to go load the tank. 21 that did not have similar hydrogen leaks after replacing seals and updating loading procedures. That confidence is linked to a tanking test Sept. A launch that day, he added, would require “a series of discussions that need to occur with the FAA.”Īgency and industry officials remain optimistic they will not need to worry about that additional launch attempt, expressing confidence they resolved issues such as the hydrogen leak that scrubbed the previous launch attempt Sept. “There is an opportunity to get a fourth attempt within that launch period,” said Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems program, most likely on Nov. Airspace closures for a launch would affect East Coast flight corridors off the coast. 24, traditionally a very busy travel period. 27, but those are close to the Thanksgiving holiday Nov. 20 and 21 are not available because of what NASA calls Orion performance constraints, such as a trajectory that would put the solar-powered spacecraft into an extended eclipse. 19 there may be, at best, only one chance to try again before the end of that launch period. However, if the vehicle does not launch by Nov. Those launch dates are within a launch period that opens Nov. NASA has secured backup launch dates of Nov. Eastern at the start of a 69-minute launch window. ![]() That would set up a launch attempt on Nov. 27 said preparations for the next Artemis 1 launch attempt remain on track, with a rollout of the rocket from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B on Nov. NASA and industry officials participating in a panel at the American Astronautical Society’s Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium here Oct. Preparations for the next attempt to launch the Space Launch System rocket on the Artemis 1 mission remain on schedule for the middle of November, but agency officials said launch opportunities may be limited if it slips to later in the month because of the Thanksgiving holiday. ![]()
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