After inspections found only little damage from Hurricane Nicole’s passage over Florida, NASA announced Friday that it planned to undertake its long-delayed uncrewed trip to the Moon as scheduled next Wednesday.
Senior NASA official Jim Free told reporters that there was “nothing blocking” a launch on that day and that crews from NASA had gained access to the launch pad on Thursday.
The heavy-lift rocket, the most potent ever constructed by contractors for NASA, is now scheduled to launch on Wednesday at 01:04 local time (0604 GMT), with a potential window of two hours.
Five decades after the last time people set foot on the moon, the unmanned Artemis 1 mission will get the US one step closer to sending astronauts back.
The Orion crew capsule will be sent to the Moon by the rocket without touching down on the lunar surface. The mission will endure for 25 and a half days if the launch goes off as scheduled, and the capsule will return on December 11 with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
However, according to Free, the US space agency still has to power up the vehicle and do a few technical checks before the launch.
It could be necessary to replace one component that was perhaps damaged on the rocket’s base.
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