NASA’s new moon rocket early yesterday blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard, bringing the US 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 during the three-week, make-or-break shakedown flight, the rocket would propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon, and then the capsule would return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific next month.
After years of delays and billions in cost overruns, the Space Launch System rocket thundered skyward, rising from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on 4 million kilograms of thrust and hitting 160kph within seconds.
Photo: AFP
The Orion capsule was perched on top, ready to bust out of Earth orbit toward the moon less than two hours into the flight.
The moon shot follows nearly three months of vexing fuel leaks that kept the rocket bouncing between its hangar and the pad. Forced back indoors by Hurricane Ian at the end of September, the rocket stood its ground outside as Hurricane Nicole last week swept through with gusts of more than 130kph. Although the wind peeled away a 3m strip of caulking high up near the capsule, managers gave the green light for the launch.
NASA expected 15,000 spectators to jam the launch site, with thousands more lining the beaches and roads outside the gates, to witness NASA’s long-awaited sequel to Project Apollo, when 12 astronauts walked on the moon from 1969 to 1972.
Photo: AFP
Crowds also gathered outside NASA centers in Houston, Texas, and Huntsville, Alabama, to watch the spectacle on giant screens.
“For the Artemis generation, this is for you,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said shortly before liftoff, referring to young people who were not alive for Apollo.
The liftoff marked the start of NASA’s Artemis lunar-exploration program, named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister.
The space agency is aiming to send four astronauts around the moon on the next flight, in 2024, and land humans there as early as 2025.
The 98m Space Launch System is the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA, with more thrust than the space shuttle or the Saturn V that carried astronauts to the moon.
A series of hydrogen fuel leaks plagued the summertime launch attempts, as well as countdown tests. A fresh leak erupted at a new location during fueling on Tuesday night, but an emergency team tightened the faulty valve on the pad. Then a US Space Force radar station went down, resulting in another scramble, this time to replace an ethernet switch.
Orion should reach the moon by Monday, more than 370,000km from Earth. After coming within 130km of the moon, the capsule is to enter a far-flung orbit stretching about 64,000km beyond.
The US$4.1 billion test flight is set to last 25 days, about the same as when crews would be aboard.
The space agency intends to push the spacecraft to its limits and uncover any problems before astronauts strap in.
‘MOONEQUINS’
The mannequins — NASA calls them “moonequins” — are fitted with sensors to measure vibration, acceleration and cosmic radiation, among others.
“There’s a fair amount of risk with this particular initial flight test,” mission manager Mike Sarafin said.
Ultimately, NASA hopes to establish a base on the moon and send astronauts to Mars by the late 2030s or early 2040s.
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