The Artemis 1 mission is ready to launch. This is the result of NASA’s Flight Readiness Review, which was held on Monday (22).
The review was an in-depth assessment of the preparation of the 98-meter-tall stack, consisting of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft, currently sitting on the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Artemis team is targeting its first two-hour launch window, from 9:33 am to 11:33 am ET on Monday, August 29. There are backup release windows on September 2nd and 5th.
The “go” after the flight readiness review is a positive sign that things are on track for the mission, but there are still factors in the week ahead that could affect when to take off, including bad weather.
Very little remains on the to-do list after previous test rounds of the rocket on the launch pad during the wet test, which simulated each step of the launch without taking off. There is still one open item that the team will test on launch day, said Mike Sarafin, NASA’s Artemis mission manager.
The hydrogen kickoff, used to thermally condition the engines, did not occur during the final wet dress rehearsal, so this process is now a component of the launch countdown. This test will take place during a “rest point” before the final countdown, said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director for Artemis 1 at the Kennedy Space Center.
The rocket stack arrived at the launch pad on August 17, after a 4-mile ride aboard one of NASA’s giant Apollo-era trackers from the Vehicle Assembly Building — just like the Space Shuttle missions and Apollo rockets. Saturn V once did.
The unmanned Artemis 1 will be launched on a mission that goes beyond the Moon and returns to Earth. Once launched, the spacecraft will reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, traveling 2.1 million kilometers over 42 days.
Artemis 1 will drop into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on October 10th. Orion’s return will be faster and hotter than any spacecraft has ever experienced on its way back to Earth.
The Orion spacecraft will travel farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever flown, reaching 64,000 kilometers beyond the far side of the Moon, according to NASA.
There are no humans on board, but Orion will carry 54.4 kilograms of souvenirs, including toys, Apollo 11 items and three mannequins.
Sitting in the commander’s seat of Orion will be Commander Moonikin Campos, a suitable dummy who can collect data on what future human crews might experience on a lunar voyage.
The dummy will wear the new Orion Crew Survival System suit, designed for astronauts to wear during launch and re-entry. The suit has two radiation sensors.
This mission will kick off NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and land the first woman and first black person on the lunar surface by 2025 — and eventually pave the way for human exploration of Mars.
Artemis 1 will also carry several science experiments, some of which were installed when the rocket and spacecraft arrived at the launch pad.
This week, Team Artemis will open the hatch to Orion once again to install a plush toy Snoopy, which will serve as the mission’s zero-gravity indicator. Once the spacecraft reaches the microgravity environment of space, Snoopy will float through the crew capsule.
Bob Cabana, the associate administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., reflected on watching the launch of Apollo 13 as a young aspirant at the US Naval Academy.
“I never dreamed that I would end up being an astronaut, let alone director of the Kennedy Space Center or in the position I am in now,” Cabana said.
“I am a product of the Apollo generation and look what it did for us. And I can’t wait to see what comes next from the Artemis generation, because I think it’s going to inspire even more than Apollo. see all this work during today’s review and know that we are ready to do it.”
Source: CNN Brasil
