But according to the US space agency, that may take until the late 2030s to accomplish. The Artemis programme eventually hopes to establish a long-term lunar outpost, which NASA sees as an important stepping stone to an even more ambitious goal of sending astronaut missions to Mars. NASA hopes to send astronauts back to the moon as early as 2025, including the first woman and the first person of colour to set foot on the lunar surface – that is, if the first two Artemis missions are successful. News media members wait as NASA’s next-generation moon rocket – the Space Launch System (SLS), with its Orion crew capsule on top – sits on the launchpad before the Artemis I mission was scrubbed, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the US To the moon and then Mars The SLS, which is marketed as the most potent and sophisticated rocket ever created, is the largest new vertical launch system the US space agency has produced since the Saturn V rocket used for the Apollo missions 50 years ago. The SLS, which has been in development for about a decade, is already more than five years behind schedule.Īccording to The Planetary Society, the development costs of the programme have gone far over budget from an original $7bn to about $23bn. And you don’t want to light the candle until it’s ready to go.” Already behind schedule “It’s just illustrative that this is a very complicated machine, a very complicated system, and all those things have to work. “We don’t launch until it’s right,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a webcast interview after the launch delay. Apart from the disappointment felt by tens of thousands of eager spectators who had gathered along beaches and roadways to watch Monday’s launch, postponements are not seen as a major setback for NASA for rocket makers Boeing and Lockheed Martin. In the space and rocket-launching industry, last-minute delays are not unusual and are quite routine. The Orion capsule that sits atop the rocket and is eventually to carry humans has three mannequins on board. The launch of the SLS-first Orion heralds the official start of the highly anticipated moon-to-Mars Artemis programme, the space agency’s replacement for the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 1970s.īefore NASA decides that the 5.75-million-pound craft is safe enough to transport astronauts on a future flight planned for 2024, this first mission is meant to put it through its paces in a demanding demonstration flight and stretch its design limits. But a launch attempt Friday would depend on the outcome of troubleshooting on the engine bleed issue that caused officials to scrub today’s countdown. The next launch opportunity available for the Artemis 1 mission is Friday at 12:48pm EDT (1648 GMT). According to NASA, mission engineers had trouble getting that engine number three’s temperature up to launch-ready levels. On Monday, launch workers had started to fill the rocket’s core fuel tanks with super-cooled liquid oxygen and hydrogen propellants when they identified an issue with one of the rocket’s main engines. Why Artemis did not launch and why it matters The next launch opportunity available for the Artemis 1 mission is Friday at 12:48pm EDT (16:48 GMT), depending on whether the launch team can solve the engine problem, described as an “engine bleed issue” by Spaceflight Now, which closely follows rocket launches. Keep reading list of 4 items list 1 of 4 NASA delays moon rocket liftoff after engine trouble list 2 of 4 ‘A new era’: NASA unveils more Webb Telescope images of universe list 3 of 4 NASA launches UFO study despite ‘reputational risk’ list 4 of 4 Debris risk forces NASA to delay mission to fix ISS antenna end of list
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