NASA is aiming to fly its huge, next-generation rocket, the Area Launch System, for the primary time in February of 2022, a vital check flight on NASA’s journey to ship individuals again to the Moon. Nevertheless, loads of exams nonetheless have to go nicely earlier than the much-delayed car can lastly take flight.
Affirmation of the brand new goal date, which was rumored in August, comes a day after engineers totally stacked the Area Launch System, or SLS, inside NASA’s huge hangar at Kennedy Area Heart in Florida. Standing at 322 ft excessive, the SLS rises taller than the Statue of Liberty. On high of the stack is NASA’s Orion crew capsule, a brand new spacecraft that’s been developed to hold individuals into deep area. Nevertheless, when the SLS flies for the primary time subsequent 12 months, there gained’t be any individuals on board. The check mission will ship an empty Orion capsule on a four- to six-week-long journey across the Moon.
SLS’ debut flight is called Artemis I, the primary main flight in NASA’s Artemis program. If the flight is profitable, the SLS and Orion’s subsequent mission will probably be Artemis II, which can carry NASA astronauts on an identical trajectory across the Moon. This system will culminate with touchdown the primary girl and the primary particular person of coloration on the floor of the Moon. Through the Trump administration, Vice President Mike Pence challenged NASA to make this touchdown occur as early as 2024.
That timeline has since been referred to as into query, given the complexity of the mission and quite a few delays. Initially, NASA envisioned the SLS flying for the primary time again in 2017, however its debut has been constantly pushed again time and again as a consequence of improper administration and price overruns. Within the meantime, NASA additionally wants a lunar lander to convey individuals all the way down to the floor of the Moon, which the SLS and Orion can’t do alone. The area company awarded SpaceX a contract to develop its new car, referred to as Starship, to take individuals to the Moon’s floor. However the car nonetheless has an extended highway of growth forward, and lawsuits filed by competitor Blue Origin, which didn’t obtain the NASA contract, have difficult the method. Then there may be nonetheless the matter of growing new spacesuits, which might additionally maintain up the timeline.
Regardless of all that, NASA hasn’t fairly given up on the 2024 goal date, even after Joe Biden turned president. “It’s a stretch, it’s a problem, however the schedule is 2024,” NASA administrator Invoice Nelson stated in June. Nelson additionally lately acknowledged the sheer quantity of labor and obstacles that must be overcome.
For now, NASA is generally centered on getting Artemis I off the bottom. If all goes nicely, NASA plans to roll out the totally stacked SLS out to the launchpad late this 12 months. Early subsequent 12 months, the mission workforce will conduct what’s generally known as a moist costume rehearsal, the place they’ll fill the rocket with the identical propellants it should use for flight however with out igniting the rocket’s engines. As soon as that’s full, NASA will then roll the rocket again to its hangar for extra checks earlier than rolling it to the launchpad once more forward of the flight.
“I inform you I couldn’t be prouder of the workforce that bought us to the place we’re in the present day, regardless of the a number of challenges that we confronted with COVID and main storms — most lately, Hurricane Ida — and the impacts that had on our testing services,” John Honeycutt, the SLS program supervisor at NASA’s Marshall Area Flight Heart, stated throughout a press convention in the present day.
As of now, Artemis I has three completely different launch home windows: one in February, one in March, and one in April. Every window, dictated by how the Earth is transferring about its axis and the Moon’s rotation round our planet, is roughly 15 days lengthy, with the primary window opening on February twelfth. The timing of the launch throughout the window dictates how lengthy Artemis I’ll keep in area, making it both a four-week mission or a six-week mission.
As soon as Artemis I is full, then comes Artemis II with a goal launch date someday in 2023. For that flight, individuals will probably be on board, which implies the car will want much more additions, notably a life help system. NASA wouldn’t say whether or not the newest SLS delays have pushed again Artemis II, solely that an replace is on its means.
“I believe the company is constant to take a look at that; we’re evaluating the standing of that mission,” Tom Whitmeyer, deputy affiliate administrator for exploration methods growth at NASA, stated throughout in the present day’s press convention.
