Engineers and technicians have been busy with final checks and tests of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket stack made a pair of trips to the launch pad in March and June for the wet suit test, a test that simulated every step of the launch without liftoff.
On Tuesday night the real event began.
The Artemis team is targeting its first two-hour launch window from 8:33am ET to 10:33am ET on Monday, August 29. There are security release windows on September 2nd and September 5th.
The massive 322-foot-tall (98-meter-high) stack embarked on a slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) journey aboard one of NASA’s giant Apollo-era trackers it from the assembly building to the launch pad, just as the shuttle missions and the Apollo Saturn V rockets once did.
The 6.6 million pound (3 million kilogram) crawler carried the rocket stack and its mobile launcher at a top speed of 1 mile per hour (1.6 kilometers per hour). The rocket stack arrived at the launch pad at 7:30 a.m. ET Wednesday morning after a nearly 10-hour journey.
The iconic crawler is one of two that have operated for more than 50 years at the Kennedy Space Center. The mass transporters were first used in 1965 and can each carry 18 million pounds (8.2 million kilograms), or the weight of more than 20 fully loaded 777 airplanes, according to NASA. The tracks are so wide that a professional baseball diamond could sit on top of each one.
Now that the rocket stack has arrived, engineers and technicians will prepare the rocket’s systems for launch.
The uncrewed Artemis I will launch a mission that goes beyond the Moon and back to Earth. Once launched, the spacecraft will reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, traveling 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) over the course of 42 days. Artemis I will splash into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on October 10. Orion’s return will be faster and hotter than any spacecraft has ever experienced on its way back to Earth.
The Orion spacecraft will travel farther than any human-built spacecraft that has ever flown, reaching 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side of the Moon, according to NASA.
There are no humans on board, but Orion will carry 120 pounds (54.4 kilograms) of memorabilia, including toys, Apollo 11 items and three mannequins.
Sitting in Orion’s commander’s seat will be Commander Moonikin Campos, a suitable dummy that can collect data on what future human crews might experience on a lunar journey. The manikin will wear the new Orion Crew Survival System suit designed for astronauts to wear during launch and reentry. The suit has two radiation sensors.
Two “ghosts” named Helga and Zohar will travel in other seats of Orion. These mannequin torsos are made of materials that mimic a woman’s soft tissues, organs and bones. Both torsos have more than 5,600 sensors and 34 radiation detectors to measure how much radiation exposure occurs during spaceflight.
This mission will launch NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface by 2025, eventually leading to human exploration of March
Artemis I will also carry a number of science experiments, some of which will be set up once the rocket and spacecraft reach the launch pad.