A fuel leak halted the launch of a new Moon rocket on its second attempt.
USA:
After scrapping a second attempt to get its new 30-stage rocket off the ground due to a fuel leak, NASA announced on Saturday that it won’t try again during the current opportunity, which ends. early next week.
Determined by the positions of the Earth and Moon, the current launch period for NASA’s Artemis 1 mission ends Tuesday and is “certainly undisputed,” said Jim Free, deputy administrator Exploration Systems Development member, said at a news conference Saturday, without confirming a new date.
The next possible launch windows according to NASA are September 19 to October 4 and then October 17 to 31.
Millions of people around the globe and crowds gathered on Florida beaches had hoped to witness the historic explosion of the Space Launch System (SLS), but a leak near the rocket’s base has been reported. found when extremely cold liquid hydrogen is injected.
“The launch director declined to launch Artemis I today,” NASA said in a statement. “Many troubleshooting attempts to address the leak area … failed to fix the problem.”
The latest postponement “is the right decision after you develop this kind of leak,” astronaut Victor Glover told reporters.
“These are really complicated machines. When you see a scrubber, people should be confident, not lose confidence.”
Monday’s initial launch attempt was also halted after engineers detected a fuel leak and a sensor showed that one of the rocket’s four main engines was overheating.
– The next month? –
The rocket will likely have to be returned to its assembly building to undergo periodic certification checks.
Shortly after Saturday’s launch was completed, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that the next attempt may have to be postponed until mid-October because early next month a crew will use the Space Center. Kennedy to go to the International Space Station.
Early in the morning, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson directed the start of loading of frozen fuel into the rocket’s tanks.
About three million liters of ultra-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen would be pumped into the spacecraft, but the process quickly ran into problems, with Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin later describing the problem as “not is a manageable leak.”
The purpose of the Artemis 1 mission was to verify that the Orion capsule, which sits atop the SLS rocket, is safe to carry future astronauts.
Sensor-equipped mannequins are on standby for the astronauts during the mission and will record acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.
– Apollo’s twin sister –
Once launched, it will take several days for the spacecraft to reach the Moon, flying about 60 miles (100 km) at closest approach.
The capsule will activate its engines to travel to a far retrograde orbit (DRO) 40,000 miles beyond the Moon, a record for a spacecraft considered to be capable of carrying humans.
The trip is expected to last about six weeks, and one of its main goals is to test the capsule’s heat shield, which measures 16 feet in diameter, the largest ever built.
As it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield will have to withstand speeds of 25,000 miles per hour and temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) – half as hot as the Sun.
Artemis is named after the twin sister of the Greek god Apollo, for whom the first Moon missions were named.
Unlike the Apollo missions, which sent only white men to the Moon from 1969 to 1972, the Artemis missions will see the first black man and the first woman to step foot on the surface. Moon Moon.
A successful Artemis 1 mission would give the US space agency a lot of relief after years of delays and cost overruns.
A government audit estimates the cost of the Artemis program will rise to $93 billion by 2025, with each of its first four missions reaching a whopping $4.1 billion for each launch.
The next mission, Artemis 2, will send astronauts to the Moon without landing on its surface.
The crew of Artemis 3 will land on the Moon as early as 2025, with subsequent missions projecting a lunar space station and a sustained presence on the Moon’s surface.
A crew trip to the red planet aboard Orion, which will last several years, could be made in the late 2030s.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a collaborative feed.)
