Washington. October 1. INTERFAX - NASA has decided to postpone the launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) superheavy launch vehicle to the Moon with the Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis 1 (Artemis-1) mission until November, to conduct additional checks of the rocket after Hurricane Ian.
"As specialists complete recovery work after the hurricane, NASA has decided to focus on preparing for the launch of the mission in the launch window, which begins on November 12 and ends on November 27," a statement on the website of the US Space Agency said.
According to the office, over the next few days, NASA executives will assess the amount of work that needs to be done while the rocket is in the center of the vertical assembly, and then determine the exact date of the next launch attempt.
"The concentration of efforts on the November launch window will give the Kennedy Space Center staff time to solve family problems that arose due to the hurricane, as well as to carry out additional checks necessary to return (the rocket - IF) to the launch pad before launch," the department noted.
On September 28, NASA announced that specialists would return the rocket and the ship to the vertical assembly workshop in order to protect them from the possible consequences of Hurricane Ian, which subsequently struck the state of Florida, where the launch pad is located.
According to the space agency, engineers assessed the scale of the hurricane's impact on the Space Center and found that the natural disaster did not damage the mission equipment, and only a small amount of water got into some structures on the territory of the center.
Initially, the launch was supposed to take place on August 29, but during the countdown, experts discovered a leak of liquid hydrogen during refueling of the first stage of the SLS, which caused the launch to be canceled. On September 3, specialists tried to launch the rocket again, but it was canceled again due to a leak. Then the start was postponed to the end of September.
As part of the Artemis 1 test mission, the Orion spacecraft in unpiloted mode should head to the Moon and stay in orbit for several weeks. Then the ship should return to Earth and land in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
The test flight should demonstrate the readiness of the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft to perform a manned mission.
The SLS launch vehicle, developed by Boeing Corporation, is currently the most powerful in the world. In the basic version, it is capable of putting 95 tons of payload into orbit. Promising modifications of the launch vehicle should provide an increase in the payload capacity up to 130 tons.
According to the plan of the American Space Agency, in 2024 it is planned to carry out the Artemis 2 mission, in which a crew of four astronauts will go to the Moon. The manned spacecraft will have to fly around the Earth's satellite.
After performing a long space flight, the Orion descent vehicle with astronauts is brought down in the Pacific Ocean. As part of the Artemis 3 mission, which is currently planned for 2025, American astronauts will have to land on the surface of the Moon.
The Artemis program was unveiled in September 2020. Its main goal is the return of American astronauts to the lunar surface 53 years after the last mission, the construction of a lunar station and the preparation of conditions for the possible colonization of the Moon in the future.
