Artemis dreams of reaching the Moon. It’s been a decade since this space programled by the world’s great agencies, is preparing to return humanity to the Moon after more than fifty years of absence, achieve the first steps of a woman on lunar soil and lay the foundations so that, one day, earthlings can reach the red planet and beyond. But before achieving these ambitious goals, Artemis needs to take off from its mother planet: a milestone that has had to postpone twice and that, for the moment, it is still not clear when it will try again.
The liftoff of the first mission of the program It has been aborted twice due to technical problems. The first takeoff attempt, scheduled for monday august 29was canceled after the detection of a small fissure that caused a fuel leak and a series of engine failures of the aircraft.
A week later, the technical team in charge of the mission explained that it had managed to repair the damage and scheduled a new launch attempt for September 3. On that day, just as the preparations for the mission began, the detection of a new liquid hydrogen leak forced to cancel the launch for the second time.
After the two failed liftoff attempts, the mission’s science team announced that it would take a few weeks to study in depth what happened. Especially since, according to preliminary analysis, the second leak detected was much deeper than expected. From there, the experts proposed possible scenarios to carry out the repairs: either sent the rocket back to the main warehouse for an in-depth analysis or was trying make the necessary arrangements on the same launch pad. In the first case, the process could take weeks or months, so the launch would probably be postponed sine die. In the second case, the arrangement could be settled in less time.
Possible release dates
Three weeks later, Artemis’s fate is still unclear. According to the latest leaked information, the mission’s technical team says that the latest fuel leak has been repaired. Even so, before declaring victory, they plan to carry out a test next Wednesday, September 21. In this test, you will inject supercooled liquid hydrogen in the ‘tank of discord’ to check if, indeed, the fissure has been sealed. Next Monday, September 19, scientists will present the details of this strategy.
The first available launch windows are September 27 and October 2
If the repair is successful, the first available launch window for Artemis would be either the tuesday september 27 (with a launch window of 70 minutes that would open from 17:37, Spanish peninsular time) or on Sunday October 2nd (with a launch period of 90 minutes starting at 20:52).
If the repair fails and the rocket has to be returned to storage for further adjustments, all indications are that the mission would be deferred until at least the next October the 17th. In all these cases, beyond the state of the rocket, the launch of Artemis will also depend on other factors. The fall of Florida, home of takeoff of Artemis, does not always offer a favorable weather forecast to launch this type of missions.
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The takeoff from this first mission will mean the starting gun of the most ambitious lunar program of the last fifty years. The first flight of Artemis has been designed to test all technologies that, in a few years, will take the next generation of astronauts to the Moon. The two jewels in the crown of this mission are precisely the rocket, known as the Space Launch System, and the Orion spacecraft, which will one day take the first women to the Moon.
As soon as I manage to take flight, the Artemis’s first mission It will be to go to the moon, orbit the satellite several times and return safely to Earth. This first voyage, which will not have a crew on board, will last 37 days, 23 hours and 53 minutes and, as experts explain, it will open a new chapter in space exploration.