WATCH: NASA launches huge rocket ahead of astronauts’ Moon mission
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It’s been 52 years since humans last visited the Moon, but that’s about to change.
NASA’s ambitious Artemis program is set to set a milestone with Artemis II, a mission where four astronauts – Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Reed Wiseman and Victor Glover – will orbit the moon.
The mission is currently scheduled to launch before February 6.
But before the four astronauts can set off on their historic journey, the rocket and spacecraft must pass some checks.
Focus on the rollout of the giant 100-meter-tall Space Launch System (SLS), scheduled for Saturday.
“These are the days we live for,” said John Honeycutt, Artemis II mission management team chairman, during Friday’s press conference.
“It really doesn’t get any better than this, and we’re making history.”
The SLS and Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts for up to 10 days, are slated for a one-time launch for the unmanned Artemis I mission around the Moon in 2022.
But now, they are ready for four human passengers.
While all four will not land on the lunar surface, they will conduct lunar observations, experiments and test spacecraft in preparation for Artemis III – where astronauts will walk on the Moon – which is about to launch. not before 2028.
Waiting for the ‘wet dress’
Saturday’s rollout is scheduled for 7 a.m. ET. But don’t expect to race to the pad: the five-million-kilogram rocket will take eight to 12 hours to make the trip.
It will also take about an hour for the rocket to cross the threshold of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), he said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director, Exploration Ground Systems, during Friday’s press conference.
The crew access arm – which is where astronauts will walk and enter the rocket on launch day – will be retracted, which will take about 45 minutes.
Then, once the rocket is on the pad, all the connections will be made over the next day or two.
After that, it’s a waiting game for the wet dress rehearsal, where the rocket is loaded with propellant as if it’s launch day, and the teams go through all the steps to prepare for launch. The countdown will stop at T-29 seconds.
Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen is headed to the Moon on the Artemis II mission. He sits down with CBC’s Nicole Mortillaro to talk about the physical, mental and collaborative parts of training to go to the furthest place humanity has ever visited.
Wet dresses are essentially practice runs for launch day, so everything must be almost perfect before the green light is given for launch.
I had four wet dress rehearsals over several months before Artemis was approved to launch.
Asked at the press conference whether the February 2 wet dress rehearsal was too close to the February 6 window for actual launch given the multiple attempts with Artemis I, Blackwell-Thompson said, “Artemis I was a test flight, and we learned a lot.”
