The dawn of a new era in moon exploration has been put on hold for a few days, after
November 27, 2022
The dawn of a new era in moon exploration has been put on hold for a few days, after NASA was forced to postpone the launch of the world’s most powerful space rocket.
Engineers were unable to get an engine on the US space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) cooled down to its correct operating temperature.
They had also been concerned about what appeared to be a crack high up on the £19 billion ($22 billion) rocket, but eventually determined it was just frost build-up.
It meant controllers had no choice but to scrub today’s planned lift-off.
NASA has two back-up launch windows scheduled for Friday (September 2) and September 5, although it is unclear at this stage whether the problem can be rectified by those dates.
If not, it would push the launch deeper into September.
Fifty years have passed since people last walked on the moon – with over half of the world’s population having never witnessed a lunar landing – and it had been hoped that today would mark the start of humanity’s return for the first time since 1972.
Artemis I is a vital first step if the US space agency is to achieve its goal of landing humans on the lunar surface in three years’ time, possibly including the first woman and coaching commitment statement (visit the following internet site) first person of colour.
The mission will see an uncrewed Orion spacecraft circle the moon and return to Earth after a 42-day, 1.3 miIlion-mile voyage.
If all goes to plan when it does eventually launch, another flight will follow in 2024 – this time with astronauts on board – before human boots once again grace the lunar surface a year later as part of NASA’s ambitious $93 billion (£63 billion) Artemis programme.
Here MailOnline answers everything you need to know about the forthcoming Artemis I mission, including how you can track the flight live.
DM.later(‘bundle’, function()
DM.molFeCarousel.init(‘#p-17’, ‘channelCarousel’,
“activeClass” : “wocc”,
“pageCount” : “3.0”,
“pageSize” : 1,
“onPos”: 0,
“updateStyleOnHover”: true
);
);
Delayed: The dawn of a new era in moon exploration has been put on hold for a few days, after NASA was forced to postpone the launch of the world’s most powerful space rocket
Artemis I is a vital first step if the US space agency is to achieve its goal of landing humans on the lunar surface in three years’ time, possibly including the first woman and first person of colour
It will see an uncrewed Orion spacecraft circle the moon and return to Earth after a 42-day, 1.3 miIlion-mile voyage
Fifty years have passed since people last walked on the moon — with over half of the world’s population having never witnessed a lunar landing
Ambitious: NASA is set to launch the most powerful rocket the world has ever seen for a mission to the moon
The Apollo 10 lunar module used in 1969 was nicknamed Snoopy after the cartoon dog and a cuddly version of him will also go up in Artemis 1.
Soft toys actually serve a useful function on space missions, floating around as a ‘zero gravity indicator’ to show when the spacecraft interior has reached the weightlessness of microgravity
When will the rocket launch?
Lift-off from Cape Canaveral in Florida had been due to take place between 08:33 and 10:33 ET (13:33 and 15:33 BST) today (Monday, August 29).
However, there are two back-up launch windows on either September 2 or 5.
The £19 billion ($22 billion) Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule that it carries will eventually blast into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center’s Pad 39B, just across from the 39A launch complex that fired Apollo 11 to the moon 53 years ago.
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox sciencetech floatRHS" data-version="2" id="mol-992493c0-2561-11ed-b9b3-194dbf04b217" website I: Everything you need to know about NASA's moon mission
