WASHINGTON: NASA said Friday it plans to attempt its long-delayed unmanned mission to the moon next Wednesday as scheduled, after an inspection found only minor damage from Hurricane Nicole’s passage through Florida. It has been revealed.
Jim Frey, a senior US space agency official, told reporters that “nothing” was holding up the launch date, and said NASA teams were able to gain access to the launch pad on Thursday.
The launch of the heavy-lift rocket, the most powerful ever built by a NASA contractor, is now scheduled for Wednesday at 1:04 a.m. local time (0604 GMT), with a potential two-hour launch. There is a launch window.
The uncrewed mission, dubbed Artemis 1, will bring the United States one step closer to returning astronauts to the moon five decades after humans last walked on the surface of the moon.
The rocket will carry the empty Orion crew capsule to the Moon, without landing on its surface. If the launch goes as planned, the mission will last 25-and-a-half days before the capsule’s return with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 11.
However, the US space agency has “some work to do” before launch, Frey said, such as powering the vehicle and performing some technical tests.
An element on the base of the rocket, which may have been damaged, may need to be replaced.
The highly anticipated launch has already been delayed three times in as many months.
Free, who is NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems development, said two backup launch dates have been set for Nov. 19 and Nov. 25 if necessary.
Winds from Hurricane Nicole, a Category 1 storm, destroyed the rocket as it stood on its launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. However, the wind speed did not exceed the vehicle’s endurance limit, Frey said.
However, he admitted that if NASA had known a hurricane was approaching, the SLS rocket would have been left in the vehicle assembly building.
The rocket was brought back into the building in September to protect it from Hurricane Ian, but was taken back to the launch pad just days before Nicole arrived.
Artemis 1 will mark the launch of the flagship Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon by 2025, as soon as possible.
NASA wants to establish a human presence on the Moon, including building a space station in orbit around the Moon. It is seen as a step that could lead to the first trip to Mars.
