NASA may attempt to launch Artemis 1 mission later this month

NASA may try to launch the Artemis 1 mission later this month. The 23rd and 27th are the possible dates, according to Jim Free, associate administrator for the US space agency’s exploration systems development directorate.

Two previous attempts were ruled out after the Space Launch System rocket had technical failures, in addition to a fuel leak.

“The 23rd is an 80-minute window at 6:47 am, and the 27th is a 11:37 am window lasting 70 minutes,” Free said Thursday.

The dates were chosen to avoid a conflict with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a probe that is scheduled to hit an asteroid on the 26th of this month.

For launch dates, however, NASA is relying on an exemption that would prevent retesting the batteries in the emergency flight system, which is used to destroy the rocket if it deviates from the designated range for a populated area.

If it does not receive the exemption, the rocket will have to be taken back to its assembly building, which would delay the schedule by several weeks.

Land Exploration System Manager Mike Bolger added that teams are working to replace the seals to correct the hydrogen leak problem.

This task should be completed by the end of this Thursday (8), which will pave the way for a tank test on the 17th of this month.

The Artemis 1 mission marks the first step towards the resumption of manned exploration of deep space by the United States, nearly two decades after the American space agency received instructions to do so.

This inaugural test flight will be unmanned, and the idea is that its success will pave the way for the Artemis 2 (2024) and 3 (2026) missions, which will bring humans to the vicinity and surface of the Moon for the first time this century, respectively. .

The last time astronauts walked the lunar soil was in December 1972, on the Apollo 17 mission.