NASA has announced that it has selected November 14th to carry out the Artemis 1 mission, launching the rocket to send the Orion spacecraft to the Moon.
The rocket launching the Orion spacecraft to the Moon during the Artemis 1 mission at launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida (USA) on September 27, 2022. (Photo: AFP/TTXVN).
According to the plan, the Space Launch System (SLS) – the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, with 30 stories – and the Orion spacecraft will be transported to launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as early as November 4th to resume final preparations for the launch. Maintenance work will continue at the launch pad, including fixing minor damage related to thermal insulation, recharging or replacing batteries on the rocket and the self-destruct system. NASA officials confirmed that repairs for the hydrogen fuel leak issue have been completed.
NASA stated that the launch will take place at 12:07 PM local time on November 14th (which is 11:07 PM Vietnam time on the same day) with backup launch dates set for November 16th and 19th.
As of now, the deployment of the Artemis 1 mission has been delayed three times. Two test launches at the end of August and then at the beginning of September were canceled at the last minute due to technical issues, including a hydrogen leak during the refueling of the rocket’s tank and a fault with a temperature sensor in one of the core stage engines of the rocket. The third delay was due to avoiding Hurricane Ian.
Planned to take place 50 years after the final mission of the Apollo program, Artemis 1 is the first flight of the SLS, aimed at sending the Orion spacecraft into orbit, with the goal of testing the readiness of these vehicles for transporting astronauts to the Moon. After the Artemis 1 mission, astronauts will embark on their journey in 2024 and 2025 during the Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 missions.
NASA aims to build a lunar space station called Gateway and maintain a long-term presence on the Moon before executing a mission to send humans to Mars by 2030.
