{"id":17364,"date":"2022-07-20T19:14:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T11:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-announces-a-challenging-schedule-for-inaugural-launch-of-its-sls-moon-rocket\/"},"modified":"2022-07-20T19:14:16","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T11:14:16","slug":"nasa-announces-a-challenging-schedule-for-inaugural-launch-of-its-sls-moon-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-announces-a-challenging-schedule-for-inaugural-launch-of-its-sls-moon-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA announces a challenging schedule for inaugural launch of its SLS moon rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220720-artemis2-630x420.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-711207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220720-artemis2-630x420.jpeg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220720-artemis2-1260x840.jpeg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220720-artemis2-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/220720-artemis2.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption>A full moon shines above NASA\u2019s Space Launch System rocket during pad testing on June 14. (NASA Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If all goes according to plan, NASA could launch its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket on its first flight around the moon by as early as Aug. 29.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a big \u201cif,\u201d however: Workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida still have to finish fixing and testing the rocket\u2019s systems, including components that didn\u2019t get fully checked out during last month\u2019s launch rehearsal.<\/p>\n<p>Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager for NASA\u2019s Exploration Ground Systems Program, said it\u2019ll be tricky to finish up the final test while observing all the launch constraints currently in place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have some challenges right now as we complete that test and all our final closeout work, particularly in the core stage intertank, to get to a point where we\u2019re ready to roll out,\u201d Lanham told reporters today.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s announcement came on an auspicious day: the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.<\/p>\n<p>The schedule calls for the 322-foot-tall, 3.5 million-pound rocket to roll out from the space center\u2019s Vehicle Assembly Building on Aug. 18. That would set the stage for potential launch attempts on Aug. 29, Sept. 2 and Sept. 5. Liftoff would mark the start of NASA\u2019s Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed test flight that\u2019s meant to blaze a trail for astronauts to land on the lunar surface by as early as 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Artemis 1 calls for the SLS rocket to send NASA\u2019s Orion deep-space capsule into a widely looping orbit around the moon, and then bring it back to Earth for a Pacific Ocean splashdown. The trips associated with the three launch opportunities announced today would last 39 to 42 days.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Artemis I: We Are Capable\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s3gt0mGwke8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Three instrument-laden mannequins \u2014 nicknamed Commander Moonikin Campos, Helga and Zohar \u2014 would provide the mission team with data about the conditions that actual astronauts would experience during a round-the-moon trip on Artemis 2 in the 2024 time frame, and during the Artemis 3 moon landing mission. <\/p>\n<p>NASA will also test a digital voice assistant that\u2019s based on Amazon\u2019s Alexa AI software. Amazon is partnering with Lockheed Martin and Cisco on Project Callisto, which could provide astronauts with in-flight information during future Artemis missions. Lanham said the hardware for the Callisto digital assistant has already been installed in the Orion capsule.<\/p>\n<p>Orion\u2019s most critical test would come at the end of the trip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Orion returns from the moon, we\u2019ll be traveling about 24,500 miles an hour, or Mach 32, and experience temperatures half as hot as the sun outside the heat shield,\u201d said Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager at NASA Headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>Sarafin said the heat shield has gone through ground testing, but will face the acid test under atmospheric re-entry conditions during Artemis 1. \u201cWe could see something that we didn\u2019t anticipate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA\u2019s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said the launch team is working its way through a to-do list that was put together after last month\u2019s rehearsal on the launch pad \u2014 including the replacement of fuel-line seals that caused problems during the countdown.<\/p>\n<p>Free emphasized that the dates released today were \u201cnot an agency commitment,\u201d but merely a schedule for the launch team to target. \u201cWe\u2019re here today to say, \u2018Hey, we think we\u2019re on a good path to get to attempts on those dates,&#8217;\u201d  he said.<\/p>\n<p>Once the SLS rocket is rolled out, mission planners will have to watch the clock on the onboard batteries that provide power for the flight termination system. If liftoff doesn\u2019t occur by Sept. 5 or 6, NASA would have to wait for the next launch window \u2014 which would be open from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4 \u2014 or perhaps even the following window, which opens Oct. 17.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A full moon shines above NASA\u2019s Space Launch System rocket during pad testing on June 14. (NASA Photo) If all goes according to plan, NASA could launch its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket on its first flight around the moon by as early as Aug. 29. That\u2019s a big \u201cif,\u201d however: Workers at Kennedy Space [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[304,625,190,640,4370,787],"class_list":["post-17364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artemis","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-orion","tag-sls-rocket","tag-space-launch-system"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}