The historic start of mankind’s return to the Moon is ready for launch. NASA’s Artemis 1 mission just completed its flight readiness review on Monday, with the space agency giving it the final “go” for an Aug. 29 launch.
NASA officials held a meeting to discuss technical details surrounding the launch of Artemis 1, saying they have approved the mission for a two-hour launch window that will open at 8:33 a.m. ET on August 29 There are also two backup windows. available on September 2nd and September 5th. “We’re going to launch, which is absolutely outstanding,” NASA Associate Administrator Robert Cabana told reporters at a news conference Monday night, Spaceflight Now reported. “This day has been a long time coming.”
The Space Launch System (SLS) currently rests aloft on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SLS will attempt to deliver the Orion capsule into space, where it will make a close flyby of the Moon and return to Earth at the end of its 42-day journey. A key goal of the mission is to test Orion’s heat shield during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, a task that will be considerably less stressful to accomplish since there is no real crew on board.
At approx. Today, August 23, 2022, at 9:00 am EDT, our @NASA_Astronauts did a flyby to honor the launch of Artemis I and see its potential future journey! Atop Launch Pad 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center are @NASA_SLS and @NASA_Orion on the mobile launcher. pic.twitter.com/lB4REV7UG4
— NASA Exploration Ground Systems (@NASAGroundSys) August 23, 2022
There are still some lingering issues ahead of Artemis 1’s launch. Earlier this year, the 98.15m-tall (98m) rocket underwent four general tests that didn’t go exactly as planned, but the agency gave the green light. for launch despite imperfect practice sessions and an unresolved hydrogen leak. Before launch, SLS will still need to thermally condition its engines by performing a hydrogen start-up, a step that could not be tested during wet suit trials. During the press conference, NASA officials said they will test the hydrogen start-up once the center stage’s hydrogen tank is filled a few hours before launch, according to Space News. If NASA is unable to complete this test on launch day, the agency will announce a crash and retest at a later date.
Artemis 1 is the first integrated test flight of SLS and Orion, setting the stage for the launch of the subsequent Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 missions. Artemis 2, which NASA hopes to launch in 2024, will have a crew on board but will not land on the Moon’s surface. This is reserved for the main event, Artemis 3, in which NASA seeks to land a man and the first woman on the Moon in late 2025.
The start of the Artemis era will draw huge crowds, with more than 100,000 visitors expected to gather for the inaugural launch of the SLS rocket at Kennedy Space Center and launch viewing areas.
Read more: NASA selects sites on the Moon where two astronauts could land in 2026