NASA Clears Artemis 1 Moon Rocket For Nov. 16 Launch Despite Storm Damage [UPDATE]

UPDATE 7:22 UTC: NASA's Artemis 1 rocket blasted off the Kennedy Space Center in the early hours of Wednesday, "lighting up the night sky and accelerating on a journey that will take an astronaut-less capsule around the moon and back," reports the New York Times. From the report: At around 1:47 a.m. Eastern time, the four engines on the rocket's core stage ignited, along with two skinnier side boosters. As the countdown hit zero, clamps holding the rocket down let go, and the vehicle slipped Earth's bonds. A few minutes later, the side boosters and then the giant core stage dropped away. The rocket's upper engine then ignited to carry the Orion spacecraft, where astronauts will sit during later missions, toward orbit. Less than the two hours after launch, the upper stage will fire one last time to send Orion on a path toward the moon. On Monday, Orion will pass within 60 miles of the moon's surface. After going around the moon for a couple of weeks, Orion will head back to Earth, splashing down on Dec. 11 in the Pacific Ocean, about 60 miles off the coast of California.

This flight, evoking the bygone Apollo era, is a crucial test for NASA's Artemis program that aims to put astronauts, after five decades of loitering in low-Earth orbit, back on the moon. For NASA, the mission ushers in a new era of lunar exploration, one that seeks to unravel scientific mysteries in the shadows of craters in the polar regions, test technologies for dreamed-of journeys to Mars and spur private enterprise to chase new entrepreneurial frontiers farther out in the solar system. [...] The launch occurred years behind schedule, and billions of dollars over budget. The delays and cost overruns of S.L.S. and Orion highlight the shortcomings of how NASA has managed its programs. The next Artemis mission, which is to take four astronauts on a journey around the moon but not to the surface, will launch no earlier than 2024. Artemis III, in which two astronauts will land near the moon's south pole, is currently scheduled for 2025, though that date is very likely to slip further into the future. The original story from Space.com: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission will once again attempt to launch after all. Mission managers met on Monday (Nov. 14) to discuss the flight readiness of the Artemis 1's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft following slight damage caused by Hurricane Nicole, which was swiftly downgraded to a tropical storm after making landfall, on Thursday (Nov. 10). Despite the fact that a band of insulating caulking on Orion was damaged by high winds during the storm's landfall, Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager at NASA headquarters in Washington, said "there's no change in our plan to attempt to launch on the 16th" during a media teleconference today (Nov. 14).

"The unanimous recommendation for the team was that we were in a good position to go ahead and proceed with the launch countdown," added Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of NASA's Exploration Ground Systems program at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. If all goes according to plan during additional preflight checks and the cryogenic fueling process on Tuesday (Nov. 15), the Artemis 1 mission will launch from Launch Pad 39B at 1:04 a.m. EST (0604 GMT) on Nov. 16. You can watch the countdown, fueling and launch of Artemis 1 live online here on Space.com courtesy of NASA.

Too late

[Richard_at_work]

Its in orbit

Re:

[quenda]

Well, Orion capsule and the ICPS is in orbit. Most of the rocket is now at the bottom of the Atlantic :-( , including the very beautiful and *very* expensive RS-25 engines, that were designed to be re-used many times.

In about an hour, it should begin the burn to the moon (TLI). It will take 5 days to get there.

Re:

[nojayuk]

The engines did get re-used -- I think the engines that flew today had flown about eight or ten times each before. They're old tech now though, designed in the 1970s and well behind the modern technology curve even with the upgrades and mods carried out on them over the decades. Time for a new H2/LOX rocket motor design once the existing stock of older RS-25A motors are expended.

Fly and die, it's one way to reach Rocket Valhalla.

Time travel

[backslashdot]

Thanks slashdot. I can only surmise it went into retrograde orbit and traveled back in time to redo the launch.

Re:

[thegreatbob]

I would not be shocked to learn it managed to do so 2 or 3 times on the same day.

Re: Time travel

[Type44Q]

That would be awesome; now let it flying thirty more times and perhaps it can be declared safe for human flight - but I'll still have my doubts, considering the particular contractors involved.

Before the Haters start posting...

[GFS666]

..Can I say what an absolutely AWESOME launch that was? :)

Re:

[dargaud]

Yeah, you can watch it here [google.com] it you back off some minutes.

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

Can I say what an absolutely AWESOME launch that was? :)

Definitely! And even though we've been to the moon before (last time was when I were but a wee lad) - I find it exciting that we're going again.

Waiting for TLI

[k6mfw]

I really need to get some sleep but might as well wait to hear "we're go for TLI." My first time watching a TLI burn was the one for Apollo 8 in 1968. As a young boy and when they said the TLI (trans lunar injection) burn is what will send them away from earth to the moon. I specifically remember all of sudden everything a global sense was completely different. Though nobody is on board this thing so it doesn't have same feeling but anyway... When they put up the earth/moon transit chart on the big board in the MOCR, I wonder if someone will say "finally we get to go some place!" as was done after Apollo 8 TLI.