The US space agency (NASA) announced on Tuesday that it will try to launch the new SLS lunar rocket on Saturday, after a first failed attempt on Monday due to a technical problem.
“We have agreed to move our launch date to Saturday, September 3,” said mission manager Mike Sarafin, which is expected to mark the start of the US return-to-the-moon program mission.
A weather official said he was “optimistic” about Saturday’s weather, although the probability of unfavorable conditions “is high.”
On Monday, NASA had agreed to launch the SLS on Friday if it could resolve the technical problems that led to its cancellation before Thursday, at the launch pad.
Mike Sarafin told a news conference that the launch would be possible on Friday – the second date previously allowed by NASA if the liftoff was aborted – provided that technical problems were resolved on the launch pad within the next 48 to 72 hours.
Justifying the cancellation of the test flight of the SLS, without a crew and that has the Orion spacecraft attached to the top, which will orbit the Moon, NASA said, in a statement, that one of the four engines of the central module of the apparatus was not it worked. does not reach the proper temperature for takeoff.
This problem was caused by a “misconnection” in an element of the spacecraft, which has since been “fixed,” said John Honeycutt, head of NASA’s rocket program.
The technical team would meet today to analyze the data, understand what went wrong and make corrections.
If it materializes, the launch of the SLS, successively postponed over the years, marks the start of the Artemis lunar program, with which the United States intends to return to the surface of the Moon in 2025, one year later than planned, putting The first female astronaut and the first black astronaut launched the ground.
Before then, NASA wants astronauts to return to lunar orbit in 2024.
The SLS is NASA’s most powerful rocket since Saturn V, which carried American astronauts to the Moon between 1969 and 1972.
Source: TSF
