Comment NASA plans to take the first step toward returning to the moon in late August or early September with the launch of the Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit, agency officials told reporters Wednesday. The long-awaited flight, which will not carry astronauts, will lift off on Aug. 29, Sept. 2 or Sept. 5, NASA said, giving the first firm dates for a mission that has been in the works for years. The flight will also mark the first launch of the agency’s massive Space Launch System rocket, a major milestone in the Artemis campaign to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972. Given the complexity of the vehicles and the fact that NASA has not launched the SLS rocket before, NASA emphasized that the dates for the launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were tentative and could change. It took NASA several tries earlier this year to conduct a power-up and countdown simulation test, known as a wet dress rehearsal, of the SLS rocket. As they loaded the rocket with 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, engineers discovered a number of problems, including a hydrogen leak that prevented NASA from completing the test countdown. As a result, NASA was forced to roll the rocket from the launch site back to the assembly building for repairs and additional testing. However, officials said they were able to complete enough of the test to proceed with a launch attempt. On Wednesday, space agency officials said everything was progressing well. NASA’s SLS moon rocket rolls onto the launch pad for the first time The mission, known as Artemis I, will send the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the moon for about six weeks, allowing the agency to test a number of systems before putting astronauts aboard. One of the primary goals of the flight is to test Orion’s heat shield, said Mike Sarafin, director of NASA’s Artemis mission. The heat shield is intended to protect Orion and the future crew from the extreme temperatures it will encounter when it enters Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 mph, or Mach 32. Sarafin said those temperatures would reach “half as hot as the sun.” NASA will also try to test the spacecraft’s navigation systems, its ability to use power from its solar arrays and its durability when traveling in high-radiation areas. Three mannequins on the aircraft will be equipped with sensors to determine how the astronauts would fare in flight. Sarafin said another test would be to recover the spacecraft after splashing in the ocean. Since NASA hasn’t attempted to send a spacecraft designed to fly humans to the moon in 50 years, Sarafin said problems are expected, but “our team is ready to adapt along the way.” If the Artemis I mission goes as planned, NASA plans to fly a similar mission, known as Artemis II, with astronauts on board. A human lander, called Artemis III, could come as early as 2025, NASA said. If NASA decides to go ahead with an August 29 Artemis I launch, it will drop the SLS rocket from its assembly building to the launch site on August 18. “We believe we are well on our way to getting there [launch] attempts in those days,” said Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator. But he reminded reporters that astronauts often tell their families who come to watch them launch into space that they should “plan a seven-day vacation in Florida and you might see a launch in there.”
