After technical issues halted its first launch attempt, NASA will try again to get its new 30-storey rocket off the ground and send its unmanned test capsule towards the Moon.
If the massive Space Launch System (SLS) lifts off successfully on Saturday, it will not only be awe-inspiring but also historic for NASA, marking the first of its Artemis programme plotting a return to the Moon, 50 years after the final Apollo mission.
The launch is scheduled for 2:17pm (18:17 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a possible two-hour delay if necessary.
“Our team is ready,” said Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of exploration ground systems at Kennedy.
“They are getting better with every attempt and actually performed superbly during launch countdown number one… I think if the conditions with weather and the hardware align, we’ll absolutely go.”
Though the area around the launch site will be closed to the public, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather on beaches nearby to see – and hear – the most powerful vehicle that NASA has ever launched climb into space.
NASA’s initial launch attempt on Monday was halted after engineers detected a fuel leak and a sensor showed that one of the rocket’s four main engines was too hot.
Both issues have since been resolved, and the weather appears to be cooperating. The United States Space Force predicts a 60 percent chance of favourable weather at the scheduled lift-off time, growing to 80 percent later in the launch window.
If something requires NASA to stand down again on Saturday, there are backup opportunities on Monday or Tuesday. After that, the next launch window will not be until September 19 at the earliest because of the Moon’s position.
The purpose of the Artemis 1 mission is to verify that the Orion capsule, which sits atop the SLS rocket, is safe to carry astronauts in the future.
Mannequins equipped with sensors are standing in for astronauts on the mission and will record acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.
Apollo’s twin sister
It will take several days for the spacecraft to reach the Moon, flying 100km (60 miles) at its closest approach. The capsule will fire its engines to get to a distant retrograde orbit of 64,000km (40,000 miles) beyond the Moon, a record for a spacecraft rated to carry humans.
The trip is expected to last six weeks and one of its main objectives is to test the capsule’s…