The US space agency NASA has planned its 3rd attempt of Moon mission on 14th November after weather and technical setbacks. The Artemis-1 moon mission was aborted twice on 29th August and on 3rd September. The stated reason was safety regulations and bad weather due to Hurricane Ian.
On 4th November (Friday) the Artemis 1 mission stack consisting of huge Space launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft will once again roll out to Launch pad 39B from NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) in Florida at 9:30 pm.
While announcing the new launch date NASA gave a statement that standard maintenance is still required which includes repairing of minor damage to insulation materials, recharging or replacement of batteries on the rocket and on its satellite payloads and flight termination system.
Hydrogen fuel leak was one of the reasons for NASA officials to curb down the mission three hours before the last countdown which has now been resolved.
NASA said that there is a 69 minute launch window for the launch of Artemis-1 on 14th November which opens at 12:07 a.m. EST but there are back up launch opportunities on 16th and 19th November of two hours each set.
The 4.1 billion test flight Artemis I will be the major turning point for NASA after 1960s and 1970s since Apollo moonshots. No one will be inside the crew capsule for the debut launch. Astronauts will strap in for the second mission in 2024, leading to a two-person moon landing in 2025.