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NASA plans to take the first step toward returning to the moon in late August or early September with the launch of its Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit, agency officials told reporters Wednesday.
The long-awaited flight, which will have no astronauts on board, will lift off on Aug. 29, Sept. 2 or Sept. 5, NASA said, giving the first concrete dates for a mission years in the making.
The flight will also mark the first launch of the agency’s massive Space Launch System rocket, a major milestone in its Artemis campaign to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
Given the complexity of the vehicles and the fact that NASA has not launched the SLS rocket before, NASA stressed that the launch dates at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida are tentative and subject to change.
It took NASA several tries earlier this year to conduct a fueling and simulated countdown test, known as a wet dress rehearsal, on the SLS rocket. While fueling the rocket with 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, engineers discovered a series of problems, including a hydrogen leak that prevented NASA from completing the test countdown. As a result, NASA was forced to move the rocket from the launch pad back to the assembly building for repairs and additional testing.
However, officials said they were able to complete enough of the test to proceed with a launch attempt. On Wednesday, space agency officials said everything was going well.
NASA’s SLS lunar rocket rolls toward the launch pad for the first time
The mission, known as Artemis I, will send the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the moon for about six weeks, allowing the agency to test a series of systems before putting astronauts aboard.
One of the primary goals of the flight is to test Orion’s heat shield, said Mike Sarafin, NASA’s Artemis mission manager. The heat shield is intended to protect Orion and the future crew from the extreme temperatures it will encounter when it enters Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 miles per hour, or Mach 32. Sarafin said those temperatures will reach “half that of the sun “.
NASA will also seek to test the spacecraft’s navigation systems, its ability to use energy derived from its solar arrays and its resilience when traveling through high-radiation areas. Three mannequins on board will be equipped with sensors to determine how the astronauts will fare during the flight. Sarafin said another test will be recovering the spacecraft after it falls into the ocean.
Given that NASA hasn’t attempted to send a spacecraft designed to fly humans to the moon in 50 years, Sarafin said problems are expected, but “our team is ready to adapt along the way.”
If the Artemis I mission goes as planned, NASA plans to fly a similar mission, known as Artemis II, with astronauts on board. A human landing called Artemis III could happen as early as 2025, NASA said.
If NASA decides to go ahead with the August 29 Artemis I launch, it will move the SLS rocket from the assembly building to the launch pad on August 18.
“We think we’re well on our way there.” [launch] attempts in those days,” said Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator. But he reminded reporters that astronauts often tell their families who come to watch them launch into space that they should “plan a seven-day vacation in Florida and you might see a launch there, too.”
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