Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Sept 3 (Reuters) – Ground teams at the Kennedy Space Center prepared on Saturday for a second attempt to launch NASA’s towering, next-generation moon rocket on its maiden flight, hoping to have fixed engineering problems that prevented the original countdown five days earlier. The 32-story Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion capsule were scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:17 p.m. years after the last Apollo lunar mission. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/3PPRsbN) The previous launch bid on Monday ended with technical problems that forced the countdown to stop and the uncrewed flight to be postponed. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Tests showed technicians have since fixed a leaking fuel line that contributed to Monday’s aborted launch, Jeremy Parsons, deputy program manager at the space center, told reporters Friday. Two other key issues with the rocket itself — a faulty engine temperature sensor and some cracks in the insulation foam — have been resolved to NASA’s satisfaction, Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin told reporters Thursday night. Weather is always an additional factor beyond NASA’s control. The latest forecast called for a 70 percent chance of favorable conditions during Saturday’s two-hour launch window, according to the US space force at Cape Canaveral. If the countdown clock stopped again, NASA could reschedule another launch attempt for Monday or Tuesday. Named Artemis I, the mission marks the first flight for both the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule, built under NASA contracts with Boeing Co ( BA.N ) and Lockheed Martin Corp ( LMT.N ) , respectively. It also marks a major shift in direction for NASA’s post-Apollo human spaceflight program, after decades focused on low-Earth orbit with space shuttles and the International Space Station. Named after the goddess who was the twin sister of Apollo in ancient Greek mythology, Artemis aims to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon as early as 2025. Twelve astronauts walked on the moon during six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, the only space flights that have yet placed humans on the lunar surface. But Apollo, born out of the US-Soviet space race during the Cold War, was less scientific than Artemis. The new moon program has enlisted commercial partners such as SpaceX and the space agencies of Europe, Canada and Japan to eventually create a long-term lunar base of operations as a stepping stone for even more ambitious human journeys to Mars. Getting the SLS-Orion spacecraft off the ground is a key first step. Its maiden voyage is intended to put the 5.75 million-pound vehicle through a rigorous test flight that pushes its design limits and hopefully proves the spacecraft is fit to carry astronauts. If the mission succeeds, a crewed Artemis II flight around the moon and back could come as early as 2024, followed within a few years by the first landing of astronauts, one of them a woman, on Artemis III. Billed as the world’s most powerful, complex rocket, SLS represents the largest new vertical launch system the US space agency has built since the Apollo-era Saturn V. Barring last-minute difficulties, Saturday’s countdown should end with the rocket’s four R-25 main engines and two solid rocket boosters firing to produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust, about 15 percent more thrust to the Saturn V, sending the spacecraft hurtling skyward. About 90 minutes after launch, the rocket’s upper stage will push Orion out of Earth orbit on course for a 37-day flight that brings it within 60 miles of the Moon’s surface before traveling 40,000 miles (64,374 km) beyond from the moon and back to Earth. The capsule is expected to launch into the Pacific on October 11. Although there will be no humans, Orion will carry a simulated crew of three – one male and two female mannequins – equipped with sensors to measure radiation levels and other stresses that real astronauts will experience. A top goal of the mission is to test the durability of Orion’s heat shield during reentry as it slams into Earth’s atmosphere at 24,500 miles (39,429 km) per hour, or 32 times the speed of sound, on its return from lunar orbit. – much faster than the most common capsule re-entries returning from Earth orbit. The heat shield is designed to withstand reentry friction that is expected to raise temperatures outside the capsule to nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 Celsius). More than a decade in development with years of delays and budget overruns, the SLS-Orion spacecraft has so far cost NASA at least $37 billion, including design, construction, testing and ground facilities. NASA’s Office of Inspector General has projected that the total cost of Artemis will reach $93 billion by 2025. NASA defends the program as a boon to space exploration that has created tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in commerce. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Joey Roulette in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles. Editor: Lisa Shumaker Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
