NASA's Artemis I moon rocket is set to launch early Wednesday after multiple scrubbed attempts. If all goes well on this test flight, NASA will put astronauts on the next mission to orbit around the moon, perhaps as early as 2024.
NASA is once again attempting to launch its giant Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft to the moon. The two-hour launch window opens at 1:04 a.m. and if all goes well, the rocket will propel the autonomous spacecraft, without any astronauts on board, on a test flight scheduled to last 25 days, 11 hours and 36 minutes, ending with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
The latest attempt comes after NASA left the rocket on its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center while Hurricane Nicole battered the Florida coastline. NASA engineers said that it did not suffer any real damage and that it was ready to fly., one in late August and another in early September, were waved off because of technical issues: a faulty engine sensor valve and persistent leaks of the liquid hydrogen the SLS uses as fuel. Another attempt was canceled because of Hurricane Ian.
If all goes well on this test flight, known as Artemis I, NASA will put astronauts on the next mission, called Artemis II, to orbit around the moon, perhaps as early as 2024. A human landing on the lunar surface, the first since the last of the Apollo mission in 1972, could come in 2025 or later. The Artemis I flight will travel a total of 1.3 million miles and reenter the Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 mph, or Mach 32. NASA wants to see how well the Orion’s heat shield performs under those extreme conditions before putting astronauts on board.
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