Laurence Malcom
At approximately 2.30 a.m. today (IST), the launch team checked their stations at the Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin a wet-wear training test for NASA’s Artemis I mission. The team started the countdown about 30 minutes later or at 3 a.m.; 45 hours 10 minutes before T-0 at 12.10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21.
The teams will operate the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage and prepare the rocket’s four RS-35 engines, which will not light up during testing. But these are subject to weather restrictions which state that there must be less than 20 percent probability of lightning within 5 nautical miles of the pad during the first hour of tanker transportation. The wind speed should not exceed 37.5 knots and the temperature should not be less than 5 degrees Celsius.
NASA will be broadcasting a live video of the rocket and spacecraft from Launch Pad 39B that you can watch below. The space agency will also provide live commentary when tank operations begin June 20. Note that there will likely not be any visible activity in the launcher during the majority of the lockdown period. But some venting may be visible while loading fuel.
In April of this year, NASA re-housed the SLS and Orion spacecraft after three failed attempts to complete training in wet clothes. It was towed from Launchpad 39B and returned to the Cave Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Once completed and successfully tested, the SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built. Designed to launch all of NASA’s Artemis missions planning to return humans to the Moon, it was initially scheduled to launch in June. But this had to be postponed because he had not yet completed a full rehearsal.
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excellentThe experiment includes a series of key experiments designed to show that the SLS rocket, Orion spacecraft, and associated ground infrastructure are ready for launch. NASA launched the first attempt on April 1. The attempt was supposed to end 48 hours after liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel were loaded into the rocket, and some simulated countdowns. But the team ran into some problems and eventually had to step down after several failed attempts.
NASA later announced that all errors found during the initial attempts at the exercise had been corrected and that there was no damage to the spacecraft and the rocket due to the severe thunderstorm that struck when it was on the launch pad.
