The Artemis 1 mission will send an Orion capsule into lunar orbit. If all goes well, the next test will be with astronauts.
NASA has reset a launch window for the liftoff of Artemis 1 , the first step in returning humans to the Moon .
The space agency is proposing August 23 to September 6 for the launch of the system made up of the SLS rocket and the Orion capsule.
way to the moon
The date was provided by Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development program, in an interview with Ars Technica .
“That’s the goal we’re aiming for,” Free told the outlet. “It would be foolish not to focus on that now. We made incredible progress last week.”
NASA assures that the fourth general wet test of the SLS rocket was successful despite not finishing the previous count until the exact moment when it should be launched.
Although not perfect, the agency considers the time to correct the problems that occurred during the test, such as replacing the seal that caused a hydrogen leak, to be respectable.
What will Artemis 1 be like?
Artemis 1 will consist of sending the SLS rocket with the Orion capsule into orbit of the Moon.
The SLS, the most powerful for the agency to date, will propel the spacecraft toward the satellite, but will not carry any humans. All the data that results from the mission, however, will serve for Artemis 2 , planned for 2023 (although, with the delays, it may not happen until 2024), carry astronauts to the same lunar orbit.
Both missions will be key to Artemis 3 , which will culminate in the human moon landing in more than five decades.