NASA engineers are again prepping the complex Artemis I mission, an uncrewed flight test around the Moon now targeted to take off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida starting at 12:07 a.m. EST on Nov. 14 after two earlier scrubbed launch attempts.
On Friday at about 8:30 EDT, NASA rolled the Artemis I Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard to launch pad 39B, after a nearly four-mile, nine-hour trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Specialists will now configure the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft for the launch attempt in 10 days.
The launch windows opens at 12:07 a.m. EST on Nov. 14 and will last for 69 minutes. Should everything go OK on that date, the mission would last about 25.5 days with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, Dec. 9.
Earlier launch attempts were not successful, in one case because liquid hydrogen fuel leaked when the rocket was in position and nearly ready to go. Engineers decided on the most recent try to move the giant rocket back to the VAB for repairs.
After an initial scrubbed launch attempt on Aug. 29, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson described how multiple scrubbed launches were part of the Space Shuttle missions, of which he was a part as an astronaut. “There are millions of components of this rocket and its systems,” he said at the time. “Needless to say, the complexity is daunting.” A bad temperature sensor was partly to blame.
A second launch attempt on Sept. 3 was scrubbed due to a large liquid hydrogen leak at the spot called a quick disconnect where fuel is pumped from a liquid hydrogen line into the rocket. “The cost of two scrubs is a lot less than a failure,” Nelson said afterwards.
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Crews then began making repairs on the launch pad to seals on the interface between the ground and the 322-foot rocket and spacecraft, but rolled the megastructure back to the indoor VAB on Sept. 26 when Hurricane Ian threatened Florida.
The Artemis program is designed to return humans to the Moon, with a landing of the first woman and first person of color expected with Artemis III in 2025. Artemis II is slated for 2024 and will follow roughly the path of Artemis I around the Moon with a crew onboard but no landing on the lunar surface.
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