New Delhi: NASA is set to make a second attempt to launch its next-generation moon rocket on September 3. The first attempt failed due to a couple of technical issues that hindered in getting the spacecraft off the ground. While the space agency has resolved some technical issues, reportedly, the weather conditions might not be the best for a launch on September 3.
At a media briefing a day after the first attempt failed, NASA officials said that the experience was useful in troubleshooting some problems. For now, NASA had kept the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion astronaut capsule on its launch pad to avoid putting the massive spacecraft back into its assembly building.
If everything goes as planned, the SLS will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, during a two-hour launch window that opens at 2:17 p.m. This will send the Orion on an uncrewed, six-week test flight around the moon and back. This voyage would kick off NASA’s moon-to-Mars Artemis program. The first voyage of the SLS-Orion, a mission named Artemis I, aims to put the 5.75-million-pound (2.60 million kg) vehicle through a rigorous demonstration flight before NASA finds it reliable enough to carry astronauts.
The mission seeks to return astronauts to the moon’s surface as early as 2025. It is also a mission to establish a long-term lunar base to assist voyages to Mars. According to NASA officials, it will take at least the late 2030s to achieve.
The last humans to walk on the moon were Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan of Apollo 17 in 1972, while the first ones were Neil Amstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.
