(Bloomberg) — Early Wednesday, NASA will make a third attempt to get the Artemis I moon mission off the ground with the debut launch of its massive new rocket, the Space Launch System.
If the rocket, originally scheduled for a late August launch, takes off as planned, it will end more than two months of delays caused by technical glitches and uncooperative weather. It will also mark the culmination of about a decade of development and usher in the first of several planned Artemis missions, with the goal of sending people back to the Moon and eventually beyond.
“We’re going to give it our best shot on Wednesday, and we’re ready to do it,” Mike Sarafin, NASA’s Artemis mission manager, said at a news conference Monday. “I’m hoping all systems will line up, the timing will line up and the range will line up.”
Named for the twin sister of the god Apollo in Greek mythology, the Artemis program is NASA’s ambitious effort to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon as early as 2025.
Two of the program’s main components include the Space Launch System, built by Boeing Co., and a new crew capsule called Orion, built by Lockheed Martin Corp. The rocket and capsule are designed to carry future astronauts and cargo to the vicinity of the moon. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. tasked with providing a landing system to bring astronauts to the lunar surface.
NASA has not operated its own manned rocket since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. For the past decade, the agency has been forced to rely on Russia’s Soyuz rocket to carry astronauts to the Station International Space Station, and in 2020, SpaceX’s recently developed Dragon crew capsule began ferrying passengers there from the station for the space agency. But the SLS is under the control of NASA and is intended to carry people far beyond low Earth orbit.
It’s been a long road to get to this moment. Under construction since 2011, the SLS has experienced constant schedule delays and cost overruns. NASA had originally planned to launch the rocket as early as 2017, with a total development cost of $7 billion. Now five years after that target launch date, SLS development is about $23.8 billion, according to the Planetary Society. NASA’s inspector general estimates that the first four missions of the Artemis program, including Artemis I, will cost approximately $4.1 billion each.
Before the rocket and capsule can carry people, NASA must demonstrate that these vehicles can function as designed. So the agency is sending the unmanned craft on a 25-day test flight around the Moon and back to Earth.
“You don’t put humans on top until you think it’s safe,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “So it’s a critical test.”
During the mission, Orion will come within 60 miles of the lunar surface before traveling farther into space than any human-made vehicle. It is scheduled to splash into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on December 11.
Liftoff is scheduled for 1:04 a.m. Florida time from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, though the launch could happen anytime in a two-hour window.
In recent months he has been testing it for NASA. The agency was all set to launch the vehicle on August 29. But as engineers tried to fill the rocket with fuel, a hydrogen leak and a problem with a temperature sensor in one of the main engines caused NASA to halt the countdown and push the launch forward. see you later that week.
A second attempt on September 3 was also cut. A persistent hydrogen leak resurfaced during propellant loading, forcing NASA to cancel the countdown. After this attempt, NASA officials revealed that they needed to replace the vehicle’s damaged hardware before they could attempt to launch again. The agency then chose to perform a fuel test after replacing the components to validate the repairs. Although more hydrogen leaks emerged during the test, NASA deemed the procedure a success in late September.
Shortly thereafter, NASA scheduled a third launch attempt, but Hurricane Ian forced the agency to return the rocket to its hangar to weather the storm. After more maintenance and upgrades, the rocket returned to its launch pad, but this time just before another storm that became Hurricane Nicole.
NASA chose to leave the rocket outside its launch pad, where it rode out of the storm, experiencing wind gusts that peaked at 100 miles (161 kilometers) per hour. Despite exposure to the storm, the rocket experienced only minor damage that NASA has said will not affect the launch.
“I would say we’re comfortable flying the way they are,” Sarafin said.
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