![]() "This is something that has not been done in over 50 years and is incredibly difficult." It is a new rocket and a new spacecraft," NASA's Artemis 1 mission manager Mike Sarafin said before launch. While NASA hopes for success, Artemis 1's test flight nature means something could always go wrong. If all goes well, the SLS upper stage should fire its single engine to raise its orbit just under an hour after launch, then fire up again 98 minutes after liftoff to put Orion on course for the moon. A spacesuit-clad Snoopy plush toy is aboard to float around in weightlesness along with a Shaun the Sheep doll from NASA's Orion partner the European Space Agency, which provided the service module. But this team has really just been firing on all cylinders," Parsons said.Įight minutes after liftoff this morning, the SLS rocket's upper stage reached orbit with Orion, with the spacecraft starting to unfurl its four solar arrays from its service module shortly thereafter. "If you were to ask me a couple of weeks ago, would we go through a storm like Hurricane Nicole and then be able to turn around and have cleared the vehicle and be in good shape, I would have said, hey, chances are probably low. 14) that the work the Artemis mission team has performed in order to get SLS off the ground following the storm has been incredible. Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of NASA's Exploration Ground Systems program at KSC, said during a teleconference on Monday (Nov. "I feel good headed into this attempt on the 16th," Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager at NASA headquarters in Washington, said during a press briefing on Sunday evening (Nov. Teams here at KSC rapidly assessed the damage in the days following the storm and reached the conclusion that SLS and Orion were still good for this morning's launch. High winds produced by the storm tore a piece of insulative caulking away from the outside of the Orion spacecraft, prompting Artemis mission teams to study the issue and determine if a Nov. 12 was delayed to today because of Hurricane Nicole (which was quickly downgraded to a tropical storm following landfall). Most recently, the amended target date of Nov. SLS was then rolled back to KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs and to shelter it from Hurricane Ian, which slammed into Florida's Space Coast in late September. ![]() 3 was also scrubbed when a hydrogen leak was detected during the rocket's lengthy fueling process. 29 was scrubbed due to a glitch in the cooling process that one of the rocket's four main engines experienced. This was the third launch attempt for Artemis 1. "The legacy that this professional crew put together in getting us to this day over the years is a legacy that has been well earned and will continue as we now explore the heavens as we go back to the moon, and then we go to Mars," Nelson said in the same conference. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson praised the team, which got the 77-ton (70 metric tonnes) rocket to the successful debut launch through years of delays caused by challenges including the COVID pandemic. We're just barely starting to scratch the surface of the Artemis program and gather data." ![]() We're going to learn a lot more as we go. "Today we got to witness the world's most powerful rocket take the Earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it," Mike Sarafin, NASA's Artemis mission manager said in a post-launch news conference. With all issues resolved, the rocket finally cleared the launch pad, sending powerful shock waves through the ground and air that reminded onlookers of the uniqueness of the moment. The ethernet issue was fixed while the launch countdown was at the planned T-10 minutes hold. Space Force Eastern Range caused further uncertainty, prompting a "no-go" on the range until a replacement was found. NASA sent a specialized "Red Crew" to the tower to tighten packing nuts to stop the leak, a process that took roughly an hour.įollowing that fix, a separate issue with an ethernet switch at a radar site on the U.S. While the SLS upper stage fueling process was underway roughly three hours prior to launch, an intermittent leak was detected in the liquid hydrogen replenishment valve on Artemis 1's mobile launch tower. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)Īs in previous attempts, this morning's try saw its share of setbacks. NASA's Artemis 1 mission launches toward the moon from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov.
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