NASA to Try Again with SLS Moon Rocket Launch this Month
upstart writes:
NASA to try again with SLS Moon rocket launch this month:
NASA will attempt, for the third time now, to blast off its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to the Moon in late September.
Officials are targeting September 23 at the earliest, and September 27 as a potential backup should it have to scrub the launch yet again. Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator of Exploration Systems Development, confirmed at a briefing on Thursday the American space agency had asked the US Space Force division for approval to fly on those dates.
Designed to fly the first woman and another man to the Moon sometime this decade (ideally) under the Artemis program, the SLS is NASA's most powerful rocket to date.
Its launch, if and when it happens, will be the rocket's first major test, during which it will carry an unmanned crew capsule into space so that the pod can detach and circle the Moon before returning to Earth. When it is time to set foot on the lunar surface again, an SLS rocket will be used to send a capsule carrying astronauts to the Moon, using a SpaceX lander to bring them down to the regolith.
But with two failed SLS launches so far and costs totaling more than $20 billion for an expendable launch vehicle that was once planned to lift off in 2016, skeptics say NASA should stop building its own rockets and just subcontract it all out to private companies, such as SpaceX.
The SLS has remained grounded at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida since it was rolled out in August. The first attempt to launch on August 29 was called off due to a faulty sensor reading that led officials to believe one of its engines may be running too hot. The second attempt on September 3 was also cancelled after a hydrogen leak was detected.
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