The US space agency (NASA) announced it will keep next Wednesday the date for the attempt to launch its new massive rocket, “SLS” to the moon, after inspections showed Storm Nicole in Florida had caused only minor damage.
NASA Assistant Administrator Jim Frey said that “nothing prevents” the launch on this date, stressing that the agency’s teams were able to reach the launch pad again on Thursday, reports a local Arabic daily.
The SLS, the most powerful rocket ever built by the US Space Agency, is scheduled to take off at 1.04 am local time (06.04 GMT), with the launch window remaining available for two hours. The rocket is supposed to launch the unmanned Orion capsule to the moon without landing on its surface.
And if the take-off takes place on time, i.e. Wednesday, this mission, which is the first in the large American “Artemis” program to return to the moon, will take 25 and a half days, and the returning capsule will land in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.
Two more backup dates are set for the 19 and 25 launch of the missile in the event that it cannot take off on Wednesday, according to Jim Frey, who said, “Right now we are focused on 16, but if we detect any problems during the power operation and tests, we will have to consider making the attempt on November 19.” .
Frey pointed out that the winds of Hurricane “Nicole” that the rocket was exposed to while on the open-air launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center did not exceed its endurance.
But he acknowledged that the agency would certainly have kept the missile inside the assembly building had it known in advance that a hurricane was approaching Florida.
And NASA had put the rocket into the building at the end of September to protect it from another hurricane, but it re-evacuated it a few days before Nicole passed.
And NASA had to cancel at the last minute two launches of this rocket, which were scheduled for the end of August and then at the beginning of September due to technical problems.
The new “NASA” program “Artemis” will allow humans to return to the moon, and transfer the first woman and the first people of color to it, in the year 2025 at the earliest.
NASA intends to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, including building a space station in its orbit, and this step will allow later a first trip to Mars.
