Get ready for a potential launch to the moon at the end of summer.
The Artemis I megarocket may launch on its journey to the moon on Aug. 29, Sept. 2 or Sept. 5, according to Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, during a press conference Wednesday.
Unmanned, Artemis I will launch on a mission that will cross the Moon and return to Earth. This mission will launch NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon and land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface by 2025.
The launch window opens at 8:33 a.m. ET on August 29 and will remain open for two hours. If Artemis I launches, the mission will last 42 days and return to Earth on October 10.
The September 2 launch window opens at 12:48 p.m. ET and lasts two hours and will result in a return on Oct. 11, with the Sept. 5 window opening at 5:12 p.m. ET and lasts 90 minutes, resulting in a return on Oct. 17.
The Artemis team arrived at these dates after successfully completing a crucial final test called the wet suit test for the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft on June 20. The test simulated each phase of launch without the rocket leaving the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mission team returned the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on July 2 to assess problems that arose during the test, including a hydrogen leak.
While repairing the leak, engineers found a loose fitting on the inner wall of the rocket’s main engine section. Work on tightening the collet, a fist-sized ring, is now complete, said Cliff Lanham, vehicle operations manager for NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program.
Further testing and activation of systems continues while the rocket is in the building before returning to the launch pad.
Launch dates are subject to change and are “not an agency commitment,” Free said. “We will accept the agency’s commitment after a flight readiness review just over a week before launch.” Weather and other factors can affect rocket launch.
“We’re going to be careful,” Free said.
The Artemis I mission is a test flight with a number of goals, including testing how Orion’s heat shield can withstand the high speed and heat the spacecraft will encounter as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere after returning from the Moon.
It will travel at about 24,500 miles per hour (39,429 kilometers per hour) and experience temperatures half as hot as the sun outside the heat shield, according to Mike Sarafin, Artemis mission manager. That’s much hotter and faster than a spacecraft returning from low Earth orbit.
Other goals include demonstrating rocket and spacecraft operations and flight modes before crewed missions, recovering Orion after it plunges into the ocean and completing the mission on schedule, Sarafin said.
The team is prepared to adapt to any challenges along the way, and some goals may change as a result, he said.
The Artemis team shared an update on the 53rd anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
“Today’s anniversary is a good reminder of what a privilege it is to be a part of a mission like this,” Sarafin said. “It’s not just the Artemis I mission, it’s the bigger picture of going back to the moon and getting ready to go to Mars.”