CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida – NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission will attempt to launch again.
Mission directors met on Monday (November 14) to discuss Artemis 1’s flight readiness space launch system (SLS) missile and Orion spacecraft After minor damage from Hurricane Nicole, which was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall, Thursday (November 10). Despite the fact that there is a group of buffer dam on Orion damaged by high winds During the storm’s landing, Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said, “There is no change in our plan to attempt the launch on Day 16” during a teleconference today (November 14).
Jeremy Parsons, deputy director of NASA’s Earth Exploration Systems Program, added Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. If all goes according to plan during additional preflight checks and the cryogenic refueling process on Tuesday (November 15), then Artemis mission 1 It will take off from Launch Pad 39B at 1:04 AM EDT (0604 GMT) on November 16th. You can watch the countdown, refueling and Artemis 1 launches live online here On Space.com, courtesy of NASA.
Related: Watch NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket launch on November 16 online for free
Read more: NASA’s Artemis 1 Moon Mission: Live Updates
A major area of interest has been a sealing tape known as RTV which is designed to smooth a slight gap in the exterior of the Orion spacecraft. High winds during Hurricane Nicole stripped a 10-foot (3 m) section of the RTV station off Orion. After discovering the damageHowever, there have been concerns that a missing dam could lead to unwanted airflow that could lead to overheating during launch and flight. After reviewing the problem and performing multiple analyzes, Artemis 1 Task managers feel the car is still airworthy.
“We looked through the entire stack of vehicles from the Orion spacecraft all the way to the base of the stack and agreed that the risk is limited to the current risks and risk reports that we have there,” Sarafin told reporters.
“However, if we had a problem happening that would cause us to meet one of our banned criteria, this might not be our day,” Sarafin added.
However, Parsons added that while there’s still a chance that task managers will discover issues that would prevent the launch attempt on Wednesday (November 16), there’s a lot to be proud of in terms of how well the Artemis 1 teams have held up. Far from the mission’s many setbacks.
“And I’ll tell you, the team is shooting all cylinders at this point, and so I can’t be proud of them. Because I think if you asked me a couple of weeks ago, would we go through a storm like Hurricane Nicole and then be able to turn around and clear the car and be in shape,” Parsons said. Well, I was going to say hey, the chances are probably low. But this team was shooting all cylinders.”
Artemis 1 will see the launch of an unmanned Orion spacecraft atop the SLS into lunar orbit. The mission aims to lay the groundwork for future Artemis missions that will see humanity return to the Moon with the ultimate goal of establishing a sustainable human presence there.
Artemis 2 will see a human crew in lunar orbit no later than 2023, while Artemis 3, scheduled for 2024 or 2025, will see astronauts leave shoeprints on the lunar surface once again.
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