After Hurricane Ian caused NASA to roll back its mammoth rocket into its hangar at Kennedy Space Center in Florida late last month, the space agency has scheduled a date for another attempt to launch its Artemis I mission.
On November 14, at 12.07 a.m. ET, the Space Launch System’s 69-minute launch window will open, according to a statement from NASA on Wednesday.
If the launch is successful, the 322 feet tall rocket will take the unmanned Orion spacecraft around the moon and back to Earth to test its systems. The mission is anticipated to last 25 days, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, 9 December, as reported by CNN.
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The space agency claimed that just “minimal work” was necessary to get the rocket and Orion spacecraft ready for its slow, 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) rollout to the launch pad, which may happen as soon as Friday, November 4.
The main objective of NASA’s Artemis programme is to send people back to the moon for the first time in 50 years. And the Artemis I mission, which is anticipated to be the first of many, will lay the first foundation by testing the spacecraft, rocket, and all of its subsystems to make sure that it is safe for astronauts to fly. But it has proven to be a difficult task to get this initial mission going. The first two efforts were foiled by technical difficulties, while the third attempt was unsuccessful due to Hurricane Ian.
NASA reported that it has asked for backup two-hour launch windows for November 16 at 1:14 a.m. on Wednesday and November 19 at 1:45 a.m. on Saturday.
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