Liftoff! Nasa successfully launches mega moon rocket
THE National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) launched the most powerful rocket ever built on a journey to the moon on Wednesday (Nov 16), in a spectacular blaze of light and sound that marked the start of the space agency’s new flagship programme, Artemis.
The 32-story tall Space Launch System (SLS) blasted off from the storied Kennedy Space Center in Florida just before 7 am GMT. “We are going,” tweeted the space agency.
Fixed to its top was the uncrewed Orion spaceship, which will later separate and complete one-and-a-half orbits of Earth’s nearest neighbour, in a test run for later flights that could put the first woman and first non-white person on lunar soil by the mid-2020s.
America last sent astronauts to the moon during the Apollo era, from 1969-1972. This time, it hopes to build a sustained presence – including a lunar space station – to prepare for an eventual mission to Mars.
The launch came despite technical issues that ate into the two-hour launch window. Engineers were forced to pause the flow of liquid hydrogen into the core stage on Tuesday night because of a valve leak, though a team sent to the launch pad resolved the problem after an hour.
Later, the space agency reported that a radar site monitoring the rocket’s flight path was experiencing problems due to a faulty ethernet switch that had to be replaced.
It was third time lucky for Nasa after two previous launch attempts were cancelled for technical reasons. The launch was also delayed due to weather setbacks, including Hurricane Ian, which battered Florida in late September.
About 100,000 people were expected on the coast to watch the launch, with the rocket promising to light up the night sky.
Andrew Trombley, a space enthusiast from St Louis, Missouri, was anxiously hoping for a successful lift-off after several futile trips made for the launch.
“I’ve been down here a couple of times already to watch this thing go up and have had it cancelled, so, this is like, whatever, the third trip down here for this, so I’m excited to see it go,” said the network engineer.
“I was too little for the Apollo missions, so ... I wanted to be here in person.”
Kerry Warner, 59, a grandmother and semi-retired educator who lives in Florida, was fired up for lift-off, which she said was “part of America and what America is all about”.
The Orion crew capsule was being lifted by two boosters and four powerful engines under the core stage, which detached after only a few minutes.
After a final push from the upper stage, the capsule will be well on its way, taking several days to reach its destination.
Rather than landing on the moon, it will assume a distant orbit, venturing 64,000 km beyond the far side – further than any other habitable spacecraft so far.
When Orion starts the return leg of its journey, the capsule’s heat shield will need to withstand a temperature half as hot as the Sun’s surface as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere,
The mission will last 25 and a half days, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Dec 11.
Nasa is banking on a successful mission after developing the SLS rocket for more than a decade. It will have invested more than US$90 billion in its new lunar programme by the end of 2025, according to a public audit.
Artemis 2 will involve a flyby of the moon with astronauts in 2024; Artemis 3 will put boots on lunar soil no sooner than 2025. AFP
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