A two-hour window will open on the weekend of Sept. 3 at 2:19pm ET.
In the coming days in the coming days, the Artemis team will “modify and practice propellant loading procedures to follow a procedure similar to what was successfully performed during the Green Run at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.”
One change to the process will make the chilldown test on the engines (kick start bleeding test) take place for up to 45 mins earlier(Opens in an entirely new window) during the countdown, and “during the liquid hydrogen fast fill liquid phase for the core stage.” The hope is that this modification can “address the issue” that prevented the launch attempt previously.
One factor that could hinder this launch is weather. NASA states that the forecast is for favorable weather conditions but occasional rain showers are likely. A further review of the current situation is scheduled for later in the day.
NASA says(Opens in an entirely brand new tab) “there were three lightning strikes to the lightning protection system towers at Launch Pad 39B – a strike to Tower 1, and two strikes to Tower 2,” on August. 27. However, NASA will continue to make preparations for the launch of Artemis 1 between 8:33 and 10:33am on Aug. 29.
“Overnight engineers evaluated data from lightning strikes to the lightning protection system at Launch Pad 39B that occurred yesterday,” NASA says(Opens in fresh window). “They confirmed the strikes were of low magnitude and had no impacts to Space Launch System, Orion, or ground systems.”
The Orlando Sentinel reports(Opens in a new window) that over 200 000 people are expected to be visiting “the Florida Space Coast” to view the launch. More are likely to view it online as the launch will be streamed live on NASA TV(Opens with a brand new window) as well as NASA’s app (Opens in a new window), NASA app(Opens with a brand new window) and NASA’s website(Opens in the new window) in addition to Twitch(Opens in the brand new tab) as well as YouTube.
NASA states that it will provide full coverage of the launch in the case of Artemis 1 on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks.
“The first in an increasingly complex series of missions,” NASA states, “Artemis I(Opens in a new window) will pave the way for long-term lunar exploration, providing the foundation for extending human presence to the Moon and beyond.” More details are available on NASA’s website(Opens in a new tab).
