NASA’s new rocket was scheduled to blast off toward the moon at 2:33 p.m. Monday. After repeated problems during the day, the postponement is canceled. The next possible launch date for the missile is Friday.
During Monday night, the rocket began refueling, a process that had to be stopped several times because a leak was detected in the same spot where one was discovered during a countdown test last spring.
Then another leak was found in one of the valves where there was a problem in June, an issue that NASA saw fixed after a series of repairs.
potential crack
Later in the morning, a possible crack was also discovered in the large orange fuel tank.
launch manager Jeremy Graeber He previously said after the first leak that NASA will have to decide if the launch will take place on Monday.
– We have a lot of work to do to get there, he says.
The space mission will last for 42 days.
Refueling was already an hour late before being canceled due to thunderstorms that swept through Merritt Island on the Florida coast on Sunday. Five lightning bolts have been confirmed to have hit the launch pad, but no missile, capsule or other equipment on the ground was damaged during the storm, according to NASA.
followed by many
Tens of thousands of people including the vice president Kamala Harristo the Cape Canaveral launch site to follow the rocket’s flight, which comes 50 years after the last manned mission to the moon on Apollo 17.
Now they have to wait until Friday, but it is not certain that it will be postponed after that. According to NASA, more investigations into the craft should be conducted before then.
Artemis 1 is a test of future manned missions to the Moon. On board at launch, there were only three humanoid dolls present. If all goes well, NASA hopes to send the first female astronauts to the Moon by 2025 at the earliest.
facts | NASA’s Artemis Program
The Artemis program is part of NASA’s plan to return humans to the Moon, ahead of a possible trip to Mars.
Twelve astronauts, all men, visited the moon during a total of six flights during the 1969-1972 Apollo program. The goal now is to put the first woman and first non-white person on the moon.
The first launch was scheduled for 08:33 (14:33 Swedish time) on Monday, local time, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida but was canceled. The next window to postpone is on Friday.
Mannequins, equipped with sensors, replace the crew. The craft will enter lunar orbit without landing on the planet.
The next launch is scheduled for 2024. Artemis 2 will be operational, but until then there will be no moon landing.
The third launch will be the first manned landing on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. For the first time, NASA will land a spacecraft at the Moon’s south pole, where water has been detected as ice. The launch is expected to take place in 2025 but may be delayed until 2026. The purpose is to establish a base camp on the Moon.
Source: Agence France-Presse
Source: TT
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