Launch of NASA’s new mega-rocket to the Moon is postponed again. During the final preparations, the teams tried, on Saturday September 3, to resolve a fuel leak problem, but did not succeed. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson ultimately made the decision to cancel the liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a NASA commentator said in a video broadcast.
“Cancellation is absolutely the right decision”, reacted to journalists astronaut Victor Glover, present on the spot. With these repeated tests, which make it possible to better understand this new machine, “People’s confidence should go up, not down”he argued. “It’s a whole new vehicle, a new technology, a whole new goal – to return to the Moon to prepare for a trip to Mars – and yes, it is difficult”NASA boss Bill Nelson said at a press conference.
On Monday, during a first attempt, the launch was canceled at the last moment due to technical problems, particularly concerning engine cooling.
After a second failed takeoff attempt on Saturday due to a fuel leak, NASA will not attempt to launch its new mega-rocket to the Moon in the coming days. The launch period which ends Tuesday, September 6 “no longer on the table”said NASA associate administrator Jim Free.
Highly flammable hydrogen
The mission, without a crew on board, is to launch the new Artemis program, fifty years after the last Apollo flight. Liftoff was scheduled for 2:17 p.m. local time (8:17 p.m. Paris time) from launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and remained possible for the next two hours, if necessary. The weather conditions were 60% favorable at the start of this shooting window, then should gradually improve to 80%.
In the middle of the long weekend in the United States, up to 400,000 people were expected to admire the take-off, especially from the surrounding beaches. Many astronauts had also made the trip, including the Frenchman Thomas Pesquet.
Only a few hours left on Earth for this magnificent machine: the launch window opens at 8:17 p.m. The weather is good and… https://t.co/Qfu707foS3
Shortly before 6 a.m. local time (12 p.m. Paris time), approval had been given to begin filling the rocket’s tanks with its cryogenic fuel – in total, around three million liters of hydrogen and ultra-cold liquid oxygen.
But, a little over an hour later, a leak was detected at the foot of the rocket, at the level of the pipe through which the highly flammable hydrogen passes to the tank. The flow was stopped while the teams searched for a solution.
Return to Assembly Building
The leak was described as « grosse » by Mike Sarafin, NASA mission manager. the « suspect principal »he explained, is a « joint » which surrounds a piece to connect the pipe through which the fuel passes and the rocket – an element designed to detach ultra-quickly just at the moment of takeoff. The teams think they have to replace this seal, either on the launch pad directly, or by bringing the rocket back to its assembly building, a few kilometers away. This work thus no longer made it possible to take off by Tuesday, when the current possible launch period ended, because of the positions of the Earth and the Moon.
In addition, the rocket’s emergency self-destruct system, designed to detonate it in the event of a deviating trajectory after takeoff, must a priori be tested again, and can only be tested in the assembly building. . However, retracting the rocket and retracting it will take ” weeks “said Mike Sarafin.
The next periods for a launch are from September 19 to October 4, then from October 17 to 31. Mr. Sarafin felt that he was still ” too early “ to completely exclude the end of September, and promised a progress report next week. NASA said that the period of early October would be complicated to coordinate, because of the takeoff scheduled at the same time of a crew of astronauts for the International Space Station, also from the Kennedy Space Center.
A springboard for a trip to Mars
The purpose of this unmanned mission, named Artemis-1, is to verify that the Orion capsule, at the top of the rocket, is safe enough to transport astronauts in the future. Upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 km/h, the temperature of the capsule’s heat shield – the largest ever built – reaches 2,800°C.
Thanks to this new vessel, the American space agency intends to reconnect with distant human exploration, the Moon being a thousand times further away than the International Space Station. Above all, NASA intends this time to establish a lasting human presence there, in order to make it a springboard for a trip to Mars.
If successful, two minutes after takeoff, the boosters had to fall in the Atlantic. After eight minutes, the main stage was to detach in turn. Then, after about an hour and thirty minutes, a final push from the upper stage was to put the capsule on its way to the Moon, to reach it after several days. The trip is expected to last approximately six weeks. Orion will venture up to 64,000 kilometers behind the Moon, farther than any other habitable spacecraft so far.
A journey of 2.1 million kilometers
In total, the ship must travel some 2.1 million kilometers until it lands in the Pacific Ocean.
The full success of the mission would be a relief for NASA, which originally expected a first launch in 2017 for SLS, and will have invested by the end of 2025 more than 90 billion dollars in its new lunar program. , according to a public audit.
The name Artemis was chosen after a female figure, the twin sister of the Greek god Apollo – echoing the Apollo program, which sent only white men to the lunar surface, between 1969 and 1972. This time, the NASA wants to allow the first person of color and the first woman to walk on the Moon.
The next mission, Artemis-2, will carry astronauts to the Moon in 2024, without landing there. This honor will be reserved for the crew of Artemis-3, in 2025 at the earliest. NASA then wants to launch about one mission per year. It will then be a question of building a space station in lunar orbit, baptized Gateway, and a base on the surface of the Moon.
There, NASA wants to test the technologies needed to send the first humans to Mars: new suits, vehicle, possible use of lunar water…
According to NASA boss Bill Nelson, a round trip to the Red Planet aboard Orion, which would last several years, could be attempted towards the end of the 2030s.