Next Monday, the American space agency will launch its massive new Moon rocket.
Monday night, Nasa officials completed a flight readiness check and determined there were no significant technical obstacles in their way.
The Space Launch System rocket will propel the Orion spacecraft on a circumlunar journey around the Moon.
If all goes according to plan, astronauts will embark on subsequent missions, which will be unmanned this time.
The SLS will launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC).
Monday, at 08:33 local time, the vehicle will have a two-hour opportunity to depart the planet (12:33 GMT; 13:33 BST).
Jim Free, NASA’s assistant administrator for exploration systems development, stated, “We had no actions resulting from the evaluation, and there were no conflicting viewpoints.”
The launch will be a pivotal occasion for Nasa, which will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 17 – the very last human landing on the Moon – in December.
The agency has sworn to return with its new “Artemis project” utilizing modern technology (Artemis was the twin sister of the Greek god Apollo and the goddess of the moon).
NASA views a return to the Moon as preparation for sending astronauts to Mars in the 2030s or shortly thereafter.
“Right now, more than half of the world’s population has never witnessed somebody walk on another planet, so in many ways, this will be their first moonwalk,” said Keith Cowing, editor of the Nasa Watch website, which monitors NASA news.
“We do things differently, everything is instantaneous, and everything will be in high definition… It’s going to be thrilling and noisy, but eventually, we’ll be sending humans to walk on another planet, and ideally this time it’ll be a worldwide effort rather than two countries competing “he informed.
SLS and Orion have been in development for more than a decade and have both cost more than $20 billion to date.
Orion has flown before, once, during a 2014 test flight near Earth. However, this spacecraft utilized an existing commercial rocket. This forthcoming mission is the first comprehensive assessment of the Artemis exploration gear from end to end.
Last week, SLS and Orion were transported to the launch pad. In preparation for the countdown, engineering and technical personnel have spent the intervening days connecting fuel, electrical, and communication cables.
This should commence with a “call to stations” for the Artemis I launch team at 09:53 EDT on Saturday, and the operation to load the SLS with 2.7 million liters of propellants (liquid hydrogen and oxygen) is scheduled to begin at midnight on Monday.
Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said, “We’ve performed 30 simulations, so our crew is certified and ready to go.”
NASA anticipates hundreds of thousands of onlookers to throng the space coast’s beaches.
This will be the most powerful rocket to ever launch from Kennedy, with 39.1 meganewtons (8.8 million pounds) of force. This is around 15% more than the Saturn V rockets used by Apollo and nearly 20% more than the previous space shuttle system.
In other words, the SLS’s engines could power the equivalent of over sixty Concorde supersonic jets during launch.
As the launch date approaches, Janet Petro, the director at KSC, remarked, “I can tell you that there is a buzz and a sense of anticipation at the Kennedy Space Center; I would say throughout the agency and the entire Space Coast.”
Orion will embark on a 42-day trip to the Moon and beyond.
It is projected to return to Earth on October 10 and splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California.
Artemis II, the first crewed SLS-Orion mission, is scheduled for 2024. Artemis III, the first lunar surface landing since 1972, will not occur until late 2025.
Nasa has not yet named any astronauts for these trips, but it has publicized in recent days the potential landing sites on the lunar surface for future explorers.
It has identified thirteen potential destinations. They are all within six degrees of the lunar South Pole’s latitude (Apollo was largely confined to equatorial or near-equatorial landing sites).
The objective is to approach permanently shaded regions where water-ices have presumably accumulated over billions of years.
These ices could be utilized to produce potable water or rocket propellant.
Bob Cabana, a former shuttle astronaut and the associate administrator of NASA, stated, shortly after the completion of Monday’s assessment, “I am a product of the Apollo age, and look what it has done for us! I cannot wait to see what the Artemis generation produces because I believe it will inspire much more than Apollo. It will be spectacular.”
