With the launch date of NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission still being pushed back by glitches and storms, the deadline for its solid rocket boosters is fast approaching.
Artemis 1 launch – which will use a Space Launch System (SLS) missile, with the help of two boosters, to send an unmanned missile Orion capsule To the moon – late again, this time Not until Wednesday (November 16) Because of the imminent arrival of Tropical Storm Nicole on the Florida Space Coast. Nicole’s satellite imagery currently shows Looming in the Atlantic Ocean Adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), it generates winds of up to 70 mph (110 km/h) as it approaches the center’s 39B launch pad, where the Artemis 1 cluster is located, ready to weather the storm.
Now that the Artemis 1 moon mission has been delayed again, there are concerns that some of its hardware may expire before launch. For example, several major deadlines are approaching related to the mission’s two solid missile booster programs, created by Northrop Grumman. If Artemis 1 does not launch by mid-December, NASA will have to analyze the boosters to see if they are still worth launching after their current expiration dates.
Related: NASA postpones Artemis 1 moon launch to November 16 due to Tropical Storm Nicole
During a media briefing on November 3, NASA officials told reporters that several components of SLS . vehicleBoosters are approaching their current expiration dates, based on the latest analysis by team members.
Cliff Lanham, senior director of vehicle operations for the Earth Exploration Systems Program at KSC, told reporters that the countdown begins once the rocket is stacked. The countdown has now begun for the Artemis 1.
“When you stack the first on the back, the clock that was originally 12 months begins,” Lanhan said. “Currently analyzed for up to 23 months, expiring. One lot expires on December 9th this year, the other on December 14th this year.”
He added that the environmental exposure classification expires on December 15.
If Artemis 1 is not launched by those dates, the mission team will have to conduct further analysis to determine if expiration dates can be extended on the various components of the rocket, said Jim Free, an associate administrator with the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Capital
“They each have a different history of reconsideration – that’s the term I choose – when we have to go back and re-analyze and look at the assumptions in the analysis. And it’s really more indicative of when we feel those assumptions are no longer there,” Frey said during a November 3 news conference. November “Good and boosters fall into that category.” “I think I’m going to team up and hurt you by saying we can go on forever, because I don’t think that’s the case. I think every time we look at the analysis with a different set of lenses we think about other things that could change.”
NASA is currently looking forward to a two-hour launch window for Artemis 1 which opens at 1:04 AM EDT (0604 GMT) on Wednesday (November 16). If successful, the launch will send a drone Orion capsule In lunar orbit and back. The launch will be the first Artemis mission that will eventually see humans return to the moon near the moon lunar south pole In 2025 or 2026, with the ultimate goal of establishing a permanent base on the Moon.
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