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The second attempt to launch the Artemis I mission, the first step in the program to restore manned missions to the Moon, was scheduled for next Saturday (September 3) from 19:17 to 21:17 from mainland Portugal, NASA announced two days after the first attempt failed.
Engine cooling was not tested in tests conducted in June, NASA confirmed. “That’s what they wanted to test at the fourth rehearsal, but they couldn’t. This was the first opportunity for the team to see this in action live. Obtaining this temperature is particularly difficult.according to the engineers,” NASA spokesman Derrol Neil said.
The first window of opportunity was on Monday, but the mission had to be aborted due to overheating of one of the four rocket engines – a new space launch system (SLS) – and a leak of liquid hydrogen, that is, aviation fuel.
Already this Friday afternoon there was a new window of opportunity, but only 90 minutes. NASA chose the third possible launch date, September 3rd, because while it didn’t have all the ideal conditions to launch the mission, has a longer margin of time: two hours.
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John Honeycutt, head of the US space agency’s rocket program, admitted that problems that arose on August 29 may be repeated on Saturdaybut NASA believes it’s better to try again “than to puzzle over whether everything is in order or not.”
“Based on what I heard from the technical team today, what we need to do is continue to analyze the data and improve the rationale for our flight plan,” he said, quoted by The keeper. One culprit could simply be a sensor that is reporting incorrect information.
The search for a launch date depends on several factors: the position of the Moon in orbit around the Earth, the position of the Sun along the path of the Orion spacecraft and at the time of entry into the atmosphere; and the position of the earth in its rotation. First, because the upper stage of the rocket must perform a maneuver at a certain point in order to catapult the spacecraft into a trajectory that allows it to make a deep orbit on the Moon.
Then because the ship Orion cannot go more than 90 minutes without sunlight. since the functioning and maintenance of the ideal temperature of the capsule depends on it. And the re-entry at the end of the mission also needs to happen at a specific time for the spacecraft to land in the Pacific Ocean, exactly at the agreed location and within a day to facilitate Orion’s recovery.
