NASA hopes to launch Artemis 1 from Aug. 23 to Sept. 6 on a ‘return to the moon’ journey

IT House July 3 news, NASA successfully completed the “wet rehearsal” (refueling launch drill) of the SLS rocket on June 20, and its Artemis 1 lunar mission. An ambitious launch target was set.

In an interview with Ars Technica, Jim Freee, NASA’s associate director of exploration systems development programs, said that this week NASA is working toward the Aretmis 1 launch window, which runs from Aug. 23 to Sept. 6.

“That’s what we’re going for,” Free said. “Look at the incredible progress we’ve made last week, so it would be a fool’s errand to say we’re not working toward that goal now.”

IT House learned that NASA recently announced that if the SLS test is successfully completed, Artemis 1 can be sent into space as early as July 26 to August 10. But it now appears that NASA has opted for a second launch window.

Before the launch mission begins, technicians must complete the final preparations for the SLS rocket, including replacing the seal that caused the hydrogen leak during the June 20 test.

On July 1, NASA began transporting the SLS back to the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Vehicle Assembly Building, where crews will work on the launch vehicle. “We might put some pressure on ourselves, but we’re not going to do stupid things,” Free said.

To put it simply, for the “return to the moon” plan, NASA developed the Artemis project and built this launcher platform called the Space Launch System (SLS), which is the most NASA has built since the 1960s. A powerful rocket launch system (but still inferior to the Saturn V used on the Apollo missions 53 years ago).

The entire SLS launch system is about 30 stories high, weighs about 8.8 million pounds, and has a maximum load of about 27,216 kilograms. NASA will use it to carry a new generation of spaceships that will be used for various space exploration missions in the future – Orion.

The Artemis project is divided into three phases, namely the unmanned Artemis 1 (Artemis I), the first manned flight Artemis 2, and the final manned Moon landing Artemis 3.

Once the Artemis 1 mission goes as expected, it will carry an unmanned Orion capsule this time around the moon to study the possible effects of “returning to the moon” on the human body, and later “Artemis 2” The spacecraft will send four astronauts into space, followed by a manned lunar landing sometime no earlier than 2025.