NASA prepping for Artemis I lunar launch from Florida

A half-century after the Apollo programme came to an end, NASA is still at least three years away from attempting to send men back to the moon’s surface because most of the required technology is still being developed.

With the inaugural flight of NASA’s next-generation megarocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the Orion crew capsule which is intended to transport on Monday in Florida, NASA hopes to make a significant advancement in its revived lunar ambitions.

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The unmanned capsule will go around the moon and back to Earth on a six-week test voyage called Artemis I when the combined SLS-Orion spacecraft lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Kennedy Space Center.

After the mission’s flight readiness review, NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana, a former space shuttle commander and pilot, said at a news conference late on Monday, “We are go for launch.”

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The journey is designed to put the SLS vehicle, which is regarded as the world’s most complex and powerful rocketship, through a rigorous stress test of its systems during an actual flight before it is certified to carry astronauts.

The SLS is NASA’s largest new vertical launch system since the Saturn V rockets flown during the Apollo moon programme in the 1960s and 1970s.

The SLS-Orion spacecraft has cost NASA at least $37 billion, including design, construction, testing, and ground facilities, after more than a decade of development, years of delays, and billions of dollars in cost overruns. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has referred to the Artemis programme as a “economic engine,” noting that it generated $14 billion in commerce and supported 70,000 American jobs in 2019.

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Congress has steadily increased NASA’s budget to include Artemis funding. The primary SLS and Orion contractors, Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp, stand to benefit the most financially.

After more than ten years of development, several setbacks, and enormous cost overruns, NASA has spent at least $37 billion on the SLS-Orion spacecraft, which includes design, development, testing, and ground infrastructure. In 2019, the Artemis programme supported 70,000 American jobs and earned $14 billion in revenue, according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who also called it a “economic engine.”

To include financing for Artemis, Congress has gradually boosted NASA’s budget. In terms of financial gain, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., the two main SLS and Orion contractors, stand to gain.

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NASA announced last Friday 13 potential landing zones around the lunar south pole to which it plans to send its next generation of explorers, including the first woman and person of colour to set foot on the moon.

The successful launch of the SLS-Orion is a critical first step. Following weeks of final preparations and ground tests, the 322 foot (98 metre) tall spacecraft was slowly trudged to Launch Pad 39B last week.

The four main SLS engines and solid-rocket boosters are scheduled to fire at 8:33 a.m. On Monday, at 12:33 p.m. EDT (12:33 GMT), the spacecraft was launched into space.

If the countdown is delayed beyond the two-hour window for liftoff, NASA has set September 2 and September 5 as alternate launch dates.

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Following separation from the rocket’s upper stage more than 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from Earth, Orion’s thrusters will fire to set the capsule on its outbound course, bringing it as close to the lunar surface as 60 miles (100 km) before travelling roughly 40,000 miles (64,400 km) beyond the moon and back to Earth. The capsule is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on October 10.

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A simulated crew of three—one male and two female mannequins will be aboard Orion, and they will be equipped with sensors to gauge the radiation exposure that a crew of real astronauts would experience.

As early as 2024, Artemis I would clear the way for the first crewed SLS-Orion mission, an out-and-back orbit of the moon known as Artemis II, which would be followed by an Artemis III mission to the lunar surface.