(Finance) – The NASA has planned the second launch window of the Artemis 1 mission for Saturday September 3 at 20:17 Italian time. The departure of the carrier rocket Space Launch Systeminitially scheduled at 14:33 on 29 August, had been postponed after the suspension of the countdown 40 minutes before launch.
The postponement was decided following problems with one of the four engines RS-25 of the first stage powered by a mixture of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. In particular, those responsible for the Artemis 1 mission had detected one abnormal temperature at engine number 3, higher than cooling at – 420 degrees Fahrenheit. A criticality that it had added to a leak of hydrogennot serious, which could be remedied by adjusting the flow rate of the propellant.
SLS will push the unmanned Orion capsule towards the lunar orbit, testing the conditions to which astronauts will be subjected in future missions Artemis 2 and 3, with the aim of entrusting the return to the selenite surface to a woman. Hopefully by 2025when it has been completed and put into operation on Lunar Gateway, the first lunar space station. Also in this case, as for Orion, with a lot of technological contribution from Europe and Italy.