NASA is making a last-ditch effort to try to launch the Artemis 1 moon mission later in September, in essence asking the independent Space Force team responsible for flight safety outside Cape Canaveral, Florida, to play a role in certifying the mechanism that allows remote detonation of the rocket if it takes the wrong course.
As it stands now, the agency has no choice but to take the SLS and Orion capsule from where they are now on Kennedy Space Center platform 39B to the VAB (vehicle assembly building) in order to recertify the battery. of the remote detonation system. The original certification (in essence, the guarantee that it has enough charge to operate the system) was 20 days.
During the latest launch campaign, which saw two failed attempts before the countdown ended on August 29 and September 3, NASA had already asked Space Force, which controls launch security, for an extension from 20 to 25 days. . At that time, they released. Now, the agency needs an even longer extension, greater than 40 days. The order was placed on Wednesday (7).
It is worth mentioning that these certification deadlines are always conservative. The fact that more than 20 days have passed since the system’s battery was charged and tested does not mean that it is actually low on charge. It probably still is and will be when the next release windows open.
Still, it’s the sort of thing that the security team doesn’t usually take chances with. “In my day, I went hat in hand several times to ask them to change a rule in our favor,” Wayne Hale, a former program manager for the Space Shuttles, which had technology very similar to the SLS, commented in a Twitter message. “Let’s just say my success rate was pretty low.”
Opera summary: they are unlikely to accept, but the “no” NASA already has, right? Asking costs nothing.
Meanwhile, the agency carried out repairs to the quick disconnect system where there was a large fuel leak during the refueling process on the 3rd attempt. The entire work was carried out on the platform, so that it could be tested with the structure there. the performance. The plan is to carry out this test, essentially letting fuel flow into the rocket, starting on the 17th. If that works and Space Force extends the certification of the battery of the remote detonation system, there are prospects for further attempts on the 23rd and 27th of September.
The most likely, however, remains the return of the rocket to the VAB and a new attempt only from October 17th. Whichever Artemis 1 launches, it will be historic: the first mission by a capsule intended to take humans around the Moon (albeit unmanned on this first test flight) since Apollo 17 in 1972.
This column is published on Mondays, in Folha Corrida.
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