In an ambitious bid to conquer the lunar frontier, NASA is on the brink of propelling the Artemis 1 mission, despite a recent hiccup. The space agency confirmed on August 30 that it's now set its sights on Saturday, September 3 for Artemis 1's launch, a vital mission which was initially intended to lift off on Monday, August 29 but had to be postponed owing to a technical snag.
Artemis 1 is scheduled to take off from Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during a two-hour slot commencing at 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT). To catch all the action live, tune into our live broadcast in collaboration with Space Renaissance International and EuroMoonMars on September 3 from 18 UTC, either on the Free AstroScience Facebook event or FREE-SRI TV.
Artemis 1 marks the inaugural mission of NASA's ambitious Artemis program, an initiative that aims to foster a sustainable human settlement on and around the moon by the end of this decade. It's also the maiden flight of NASA's robust new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, set to dispatch an uncrewed Orion capsule on an extensive voyage to lunar orbit and back.
During the countdown of the initial launch attempt, the Artemis 1 team noted an anomaly with one of the four RS-25 engines that fuel the SLS core stage. The engine was not reaching its desired low temperature, approximately minus 420 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 250 degrees Celsius), ahead of ignition.
Such thermal conditioning, achieved through the 'bleeding in' of supercold liquid hydrogen propellant, is vital to avoid any shock when the engines fire up. While Engines 1, 2, and 4 were close to achieving the desired temperature, Engine 3 was lagging behind, at roughly minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 230 Celsius). This observation was made by John Honeycutt, manager of the SLS program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, during a news conference.
The Artemis 1 team was unable to rectify the issue in time during Monday's countdown, prompting the postponement of the launch. However, the team believes it has now diagnosed the issue: a potentially faulty temperature sensor on Engine 3.
The team has planned several adjustments to the countdown for the next launch attempt on Saturday, such as initiating the engine-cooling process 30 to 45 minutes earlier than before. They will also continue to scrutinize data and map out scenarios over the coming days to ensure that the current approach is justified and prudent.
However, even if all technical analyses support a launch attempt on Saturday, the mission's success is not guaranteed. External factors such as weather conditions will also play a significant role. There's a 60% chance of a weather violation due to a threat of showers and thunderstorms along Florida's Space Coast, as reported by Mark Berger, a launch weather officer with the U.S. Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron. However, Berger remains hopeful that the weather will clear at some point during the window, affording Artemis 1 an opportunity to lift off.
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