NASA successfully finished the Space Launch System’s wet dress rehearsals weeks after returning to the launch pad (SLS). The Orion spacecraft will travel to the Moon propelled by the SLS rocket.
On Monday, June 20, teams carried out the crucial tests to confirm the launch timeframes and procedures, including filling the rocket’s tanks with fuel, starting the launch countdown through the transfer to the automatic launch sequencer, and draining the tanks.
The agency’s new Space Launch System megarocket and the Orion crew capsule will be tested during Artemis 1, formerly known as Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1).
The crucial dress rehearsal, the last significant step before the moon rocket’s much anticipated launch debut, was NASA’s fourth attempt. A fuel leak, clogged valves, and other technical difficulties prevented the earlier attempts in April.
The first launch, which will send the Orion crew capsule atop the rocket to the moon and back, won’t have anyone on board. Astronauts will repeat the first flight’s looping orbit of the moon and return in 2024. More than 50 years after NASA’s Apollo moonshots, the third mission would attempt to land people on the moon no early than 2025.
The agency will roll SLS and Orion back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy next week to prepare the rocket and spacecraft for launch and repair a leak detected during the most recent rehearsal,” Nasa said in a statement
NASA’s statement also stated that it intended to bring back SLS and Orion to the launch pad in late August. After that, NASA will decide on a precise target launch date.
