Between August 23 and September 6, 2022, NASA plans to launch the Space Launch System (SLS), also known as the Orion spacecraft, moon rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This will serve as a foundation for a generation of human exploration and missions to take place.
The space organization plans to fuel the rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen, for a 280,000-mile journey away from Earth, for an approximately four to six-week mission.
If the mission is a success, the flight will be acknowledged as the most powerful rocket in the world. It is said to fly farther than any other rocket that was built for humans. During liftoff, the SLS rocket will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust, the force in which an aircraft moves through the air, which will then manage to control the spacecraft, weighing approximately six million pounds to orbit the moon.
The goal of this mission is to prove and demonstrate the program’s persistence and ability to extend human existence outside of traditional boundaries. NASA wants to prove that there are other hints and sources of life on planets other than Earth. As the first mission of many of the increasingly complex plans, the astronauts and scientists had to get working.
After their recent test this week, NASA officials contemplated on whether they should make a fifth attempt of retesting the rocket to make sure that all the systems function. However, the operation members claimed to have stable data for the first launch of the SLS rocket, which the astronauts and agencies are taking as a sign to limit further retesting.
The SLS will stay in space for a longer duration than any other, as well as return to the mainland faster and hotter than ever.
The launch, known as Artemis I, will send the rocket in orbit around the moon. Then it will be followed by Artemis II, set to occur in 2024 with astronauts flying to the moon, but not landing on it. The first landing would occur in 2025, however this depends on other factors such as vehicle availability.
Despite the stresses over the success of the test launch, NASA could not help but feel pleased and proud about what their crew had accomplished.
“It was a great day,” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the Artemis launch director, told reporters after the test of the rocket. “It was a successful day, and we accomplished a majority of the objectives that we had not completed in the prior tests.”
“This is a mission that truly will do what hasn’t been done and learn what isn’t known,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “It will blaze a trail that people will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for that mission.”
With this exploration, NASA proceeds to spearhead human exploration into space, and continue digging past set boundaries. Astronauts will also visit our moon and perform operations, attempting to become less dependent on Earth. Using what has and will be recorded from the lunar orbit, NASA will be able to extend this adventure farther than ever before.
Sources Cited:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656024040979x347538458471001300/SLS%20moon%20rocket%20test%20declared%20a%20success%3B%20August%20launch%20possible%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/around-the-moon-with-nasa-s-first-launch-of-sls-with-orion
The space organization plans to fuel the rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen, for a 280,000-mile journey away from Earth, for an approximately four to six-week mission.
If the mission is a success, the flight will be acknowledged as the most powerful rocket in the world. It is said to fly farther than any other rocket that was built for humans. During liftoff, the SLS rocket will produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust, the force in which an aircraft moves through the air, which will then manage to control the spacecraft, weighing approximately six million pounds to orbit the moon.
The goal of this mission is to prove and demonstrate the program’s persistence and ability to extend human existence outside of traditional boundaries. NASA wants to prove that there are other hints and sources of life on planets other than Earth. As the first mission of many of the increasingly complex plans, the astronauts and scientists had to get working.
After their recent test this week, NASA officials contemplated on whether they should make a fifth attempt of retesting the rocket to make sure that all the systems function. However, the operation members claimed to have stable data for the first launch of the SLS rocket, which the astronauts and agencies are taking as a sign to limit further retesting.
The SLS will stay in space for a longer duration than any other, as well as return to the mainland faster and hotter than ever.
The launch, known as Artemis I, will send the rocket in orbit around the moon. Then it will be followed by Artemis II, set to occur in 2024 with astronauts flying to the moon, but not landing on it. The first landing would occur in 2025, however this depends on other factors such as vehicle availability.
Despite the stresses over the success of the test launch, NASA could not help but feel pleased and proud about what their crew had accomplished.
“It was a great day,” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the Artemis launch director, told reporters after the test of the rocket. “It was a successful day, and we accomplished a majority of the objectives that we had not completed in the prior tests.”
“This is a mission that truly will do what hasn’t been done and learn what isn’t known,” said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “It will blaze a trail that people will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for that mission.”
With this exploration, NASA proceeds to spearhead human exploration into space, and continue digging past set boundaries. Astronauts will also visit our moon and perform operations, attempting to become less dependent on Earth. Using what has and will be recorded from the lunar orbit, NASA will be able to extend this adventure farther than ever before.
Sources Cited:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656024040979x347538458471001300/SLS%20moon%20rocket%20test%20declared%20a%20success%3B%20August%20launch%20possible%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/around-the-moon-with-nasa-s-first-launch-of-sls-with-orion
