The return of the Americans to the moon will be delayed…
Due to a leak in the liquid hydrogen supply system, the launch of the SLS rocket for the program has been postponed – most likely to September 2 “Artemis I”.
Nasa cancels today’s launch of giant Moon rocket, citing technical problems https://t.co/P93UNl6Sbh
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) August 29, 2022
Launch manager Charlie Blackwell-Thompson announced the postponement of the launch due to a leak in the fuel system, according to NASA.
The SLS rocket is in a ‘stable state’ and engineers will gather data to see what went wrong…
The next possible date is September 2, a NASA spokesman said, although he added that this would depend on whether the technical problem is resolved.
Return to the Moon half a century later…
Fifty years after the end of the historic program “Apollo“, the new US space program “Artemis” (Apollo’s sister in Greek mythology, that’s why this name was chosen already during Trump’s presidency) got back into orbit.
The US reboots their mission to return to the Moonfor the first time since 1972 when they last set foot on the moon.
The launch – before the appearance of the technical problems – was scheduled by NASA for 15:33 Greek time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
THE Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will carry the unmanned Orion capsule around the Moon for a six-week test flight and then return to Earth.
THE SLS together with Orion are 98 meters tall. The SLS, which took more than ten years to develop and build, is considered the most powerful and complex rocket in the worldalthough, according to the Economist, it is an overpriced state construct and a waste of taxpayers’ money.
The main subcontractors for the Artemis program are Boeing for the SLS and Lockheed Martin for the Orion capsule.
The last time such a mega-rocket was launched from the Kennedy Center was in 1973 when a Saturn V rocket carried the Skylab space station into orbit.
NASA’s design is the 2024 launch of the manned Artemis 2 mission around the moonuntil finally in 2025 the Artemis 3 mission lands on the Moon (carrying the first female astronaut to the Moon).
The last people to walk on the moon were the two male astronauts of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, while ten other American astronauts had preceded them during five previous missions, with the first landing on the moon by the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
Recent years China has successfully landed three robotic missions and plans its own lunar base for the 2030s, India and Israel sent their own lunar missions in 2019 but failed, while a South Korean mission is on the way with the goal of orbiting the moon. There is generally traffic from several countries bound for the Moon, and the US has an extra competitive incentive to catch up.
NASA has in recent decades turned its attention to other planets (Mars) and large moons (Saturn and Jupiter), but now it is interested again in the Moon, including as a way station for more distant space goals. Especially since in recent years it has been realized that there is enough water in frozen form on the moon, something important for a more permanent human presence, not only as drinking water, but also as rocket fuel after it breaks down into oxygen and hydrogen.
The Moon or a space station in lunar orbit will act as a refueling station for a longer journey, e.g. on Mars. At the moment, however, scientists do not know exactly how much water there is on the Moon and how easy it will be to use in practice, as it is usually found deep in sunless craters.
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