To the moon, again!
NASA started the Artemis I mission on Wednesday from Florida, with the agency’s most powerful rocket ever kicking off a close to month-long journey with a ground-shaking liftoff.
While no astronauts are onboard, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is effect the Orion capsule on a demonstration for NASA’s lunar program. Artemis I will not land on the moon, but the spacecraft will circle nearby before returning to Earth in 26 days.
So far the mission is going as planned, reaching orbit around the Blue planet, but multiple milestones are yet to come – including Orion firing its engines to leave Earth’s orbit and begin the multi-day hop toward the moon.
The Artemis I mission launches on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Nov. 16, 2022 from Kennedy Time Center in Florida.
Bill Ingalls / NASA
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule effort in preparation to launch at LC-39B of Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Last week, NASA left SLS and Orion out on the launchpad to weather the diminishes of Hurricane Nicole.
NASA said it checked the rocket and spacecraft after the storm passed and found no major destruction to the vehicle. It said a 10-foot section of insulation near the Orion capsule had pulled away due to the high winds – but NASA indisputable to proceed with Wednesday’s launch attempt after an analysis showed it was not expected to cause any significant damage if the insulation undertakes off during the launch.
In the final hours of the countdown, a hydrogen leak in a valve threatened to delay the launch. With SLS closely fully fueled, a small group known as the “red team” was sent out to the launchpad and into the “blast danger area” to try to fix the predicament. The team was able to tighten hardware on the leaky valve and returned to safety, with NASA’s launch then qualified to proceed.
A host of aerospace contractors support the hardware, infrastructure and software for SLS and Orion – with Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Airbus and Jacobs unequalled the effort.
NASA’s program has enjoyed strong bipartisan political support, but the agency’s Inspector General recently premonished that Artemis is not a “sustainable” way to establish a presence on the moon. The internal watchdog found that more than $40 billion has already been dead beat on Artemis, and projected NASA would spend $93 billion on the effort by the time the first crewed landing stumble ons.
