NASA's mightiest rocket prepares for liftoff to the Moon

NASA's new moon rocket has blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard. The Florida launch brings the U.S. a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago. If all goes well with the three-week flight, the rocket will propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon. The capsule will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific in December.

NASA hopes to send four astronauts around the moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025.  Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson earlier today gave the “go” to officially begin loading propellants into the Space Launch System rocket. The Artemis I mission management team met today to review the status of operations and has given the “go” to proceed toward tanking operations. Weather conditions are 80% favorable for the two-hour launch window which opens at 1:04 a.m. EST Nov. 16, with the primary concern being the potential for thick clouds. 

Engineers examined detailed analysis of caulk on a seam between an ogive on Orion’s launch abort system and the crew module adapter and potential risks if it were to detach during launch. The mission management team determined there is a low likelihood that if additional material tears off it would pose a critical risk to the flight. 

Technicians also completed replacing a component of an electrical connector on the hydrogen tail service mast umbilical. While swapping the component did not fully fix the issue, engineers have redundant sources of information supplied through the connector.