Miami (EFE) tries it four times.
The SLS rocket, taller than a 30-story building (322 feet or 98 meters), soared full force at 1:47 a.m. (6:47 GMT) making its way through the night with the coupled Orion spacecraft .
While preparing for liftoff, NASA detected an “intermittent leak” of liquid hydrogen in the rocket’s mid-stage refueling valve and had to send a “red team” of specialists to the platform to adjust the connectors.
Four delays of Artemis I
NASA had to delay the departure of the mission four times, twice for technical reasons and two others for weather reasons.
For this event, NASA provided a live broadcast in English and Spanish, including interviews with mission members and live commentary during liftoff by NASA astronaut Kayla Barron.
Barron recently returned from the International Space Station (ISS) with SpaceX and NASA’s Crew-3 mission.
Likewise, Joann Morgan, engineer for Apollo 11, the first mission in history to land a human on the Moon in 1969, sent his regards to the Artemis I lunar mission.
The goal of Artemis I: to bring humans back to the moon
The overall goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to return humans to the Moon for the first time in half a century and establish a base there as a stage to Mars.
The last NASA mission in which its astronauts set foot on the Moon dates back to Apollo 17, which took place between December 7 and 19, 1972.
During the 42-day mission, NASA is looking to test the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is powered by four RS-25 engines and two tethered boosters, features that offer 15% more power than the rocket. Saturn used on Apollo missions, NASA said.
The SLS rocket cost NASA about $4 billion.
In the same way, we will measure the capacities of the Orion ship, in which can accommodate up to four crew members, one more than the Apollo, and with reserves of water and oxygen which would allow it approximately 20 days of independent travel.
Two hours after this launch, and after separating from the SLS rocket, Orion will continue on its own a journey that will cover a total of 2.1 million kilometers.
The spacecraft, with three mannequins on board collecting data to help future crews, will fly close to the Moon, about 62 miles (nearly 100 km) from its surface, then enter a distant lunar orbit where it will eventually immobilize. more than 61,000 kilometers from the earth satellite, that is to say where no other crew capsule has arrived.
Also traveling with Artemis I are ten mini research CubeSats, each the size of a shoebox, which will be deployed to take various trajectories after Orion departs for its lunar orbit.
Among the CubeSats is the LunaH-Map, a small spacecraft that will produce a detailed map of portions of the lunar surface using neutron spectroscopy technology.
On his return, another tough test awaits Orion, such as a successful descent off San Diego, California (USA), with the support of eleven parachutes and in which he will have to quickly slow down to 40,000 km/h. with which it will reach the Earth’s atmosphere, at which time it will withstand up to 2,760 degrees Celsius in temperature.
A esta misión le seguirá, en 2024, la primera tripulada del programa, la Artemis II, que hará el mismo trayecto, y se espera que con Artemis III, predictably in 2025, toquen suelo lunar la primera mujer y hombre de color que viajen a the moon.