“Nothing stands in the way” of a launch on that date, NASA official Jim Free told a news conference.
The US space agency (NASA) announced on Friday that it is continuing its bid to launch the unmanned Artemis 1 mission to the Moon on Wednesday, November 16, after an inspection of the SLS rocket revealed only minor damage due to Hurricane Nicole. that hit Florida.
“Nothing stands in the way” of a launch on that date, NASA official Jim Free told a news conference.
The launch of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA, is expected at 01:04 (local time – 08:04 Greek time).
The unmanned Artemis 1 mission is a test and is not intended to land the Orion capsule, which is designed to carry astronauts. If the launch ends up happening on Wednesday, the mission will last about 25 days and the capsule will return to Earth on December 11.
NASA has two alternative launch dates: November 19th and 25th. “We are currently focused on November 16th and if there is an obstruction (…) then we will look at the possibility of November 19th,” said Jim Free.
The SLS rocket remained on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center during the arrival of Hurricane Nicole. However, the winds that accompanied it did not exceed its endurance limits, according to the NASA official. He noted that if NASA had been informed of a potential threat from the cyclone, it would have left the rocket in the assembly building for safety reasons.
After all, the missile had returned there in late September to protect from Hurricane Ian and had returned to the pad just days before the arrival of Cyclone Nicole.
Earlier, two launch attempts were aborted at the last minute due to technical problems.
The unmanned mission marks the start of the flagship Artemis program, which aspires to send the first woman to the Moon as early as 2025. NASA plans to maintain a permanent presence of astronauts on the Moon, including building a space station in orbit around the earth’s satellite. For the US space agency, it will be the springboard for the first mission to the planet Mars.
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