NASA will conduct a vital fueling take a look at of its Artemis 1 moon rocket right this moment (Sept. 21), and you may watch it reside.
Technicians are scheduled to start loading supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants into Artemis 1’s Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket right this moment at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT). Watch it reside right here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or instantly by way of the space company.
Artemis 1 will use the SLS to launch an Orion capsule on an uncrewed journey to lunar orbit and again from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The take a look at flight was presupposed to carry off late final month however was delayed twice by glitches, the second of which was a liquid hydrogen leak that occurred through the leadup to a deliberate liftoff on Sept. 3.
Related: NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission: Live updates
More: NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission explained in photos
The Artemis 1 workforce replaced two seals on the website of the leak, a “quick disconnect” linking the SLS core stage with a gasoline line from its cell launch tower. Today’s take a look at will assist decide if that repair labored. If all goes properly, the mission will stay on monitor to launch on Sept. 27, with a backup alternative on Oct. 2.
It’s unclear how lengthy right this moment’s take a look at will final; in an update on Friday (opens in new tab) (Sept. 16), NASA officers wrote that it “will conclude when the objectives for the test have been met.”
The fueling take a look at is not the one spaceflight motion on faucet for right this moment. A Russian Soyuz rocket is scheduled to launch cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio towards the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:54 a.m. EDT (1354 GMT). You can watch that right here at Space.com as properly when the time comes.
Artemis 1 is the primary mission in NASA’s Artemis program, which goals to determine a long-term human presence on and round the moon by the top of the 2020s. If all goes properly with Artemis 1, Artemis 2 will launch astronauts on a visit across the moon in 2024 and Artemis 3 will land individuals close to the lunar south pole a yr or two later.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a ebook in regards to the seek for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
