Artemis relaunch preparations at Kennedy space centre for debut test flight of next-gen moon rocket

On the eve of a second attempt to launch NASA's massive, next-generation moon rocket on its debut test flight, ground teams at Kennedy Space Center in Florida started their final full day of launch preparations on Friday, September 2, five days after a first attempt was unsuccessful due to technical difficulties.

The moon-to-Mars Artemis programme, which is NASA's successor to the Apollo lunar missions from fifty years ago, was still on track for a Saturday (September 3) afternoon liftoff of the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion space capsule, according to NASA officials.

The SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft, which were constructed for NASA by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., respectively, are making their first flights as part of the project, dubbed Artemis I.

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Orion will be launched by the SLS on a 37-day, unmanned test journey around the moon and return to evaluate both spacecraft before an astronaut-carrying mission is planned for 2024.

"Before we put a crew on them, we want to make sure they work," said NASA Associate Administrator Robert Cabana, a former astronaut who commanded NASA’s Endeavour, the first International Space Station assembly mission in 1998. "One of the things we want to do is we want to make sure that the Orion spacecraft can support a crew of four for 21 days. So originally we were looking at a 42-day mission. With this new launch day, we're looking at 39 days, which is well beyond the 21-day designed operation for the Orion spacecraft. So that's going to be a stress on the system."

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The first woman to walk on the moon might return to Earth as early as 2025 if the first two Artemis missions are successful, according to many analysts. However, that target date is likely to be pushed back by a few years.

The only spaceflights to date to land humans on the moon's surface involved six Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972, during which twelve men made moonwalks.

"The difference between Artemis and Apollo is that Apollo went to the moon and those were two or three day missions on the lunar surface," said Cabana. "We want to go back in a sustainable way. We want to plan to live on the moon, to utilize its resources and learn what we need to know to eventually go on to Mars."

(with inputs from agencies)