NASA's massive new rocket eased onto its launchpad Friday, ready for a
battery of tests that will clear it to blast off to the Moon this summer on an
uncrewed flight.
اضافة اعلان
It left the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building Thursday
evening and began a nearly 11-hour journey on a crawler-transporter to the
hallowed Launch Complex 39B, arriving at 4:15 am.
Around 10,000 people had gathered to watch the event.
- Huge rocket, huge
cost -
With the Orion crew capsule fixed on top, the Space Launch System (SLS)
Block 1 stands 322 feet (98 meters) high -- taller than the Statue of Liberty,
but a little smaller than the 363 feet Saturn V rockets that powered the Apollo
missions to the Moon.
Still, it will produce 8.8 million pounds of maximum thrust (39.1
Meganewtons), 15 percent more than the Saturn V, meaning it's expected to be
the world's most powerful rocket at the time it begins operating.
Having reached the iconic launchpad, where 53 Space Shuttles took off, there
are roughly two more weeks' worth of checks before what's known as the
"wet dress rehearsal."
The SLS team will load more than 700,000 gallons (3.2 million liters) of
cryogenic propellant into the rocket and practice every phase of launch
countdown, stopping ten seconds before blast off.
"From this sacred and historical place, humanity will soon embark on a
new era of exploration," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a
statement Friday.
A symbol of US space ambition, it also comes with a hefty price tag: $4.1
billion per launch for the first four Artemis missions, NASA Inspector General
Paul Martin told Congress this month.
- To the Moon and
beyond -
NASA is targeting May as the earliest window for Artemis-1, an uncrewed
lunar mission that will be the first integrated flight for SLS and Orion.
SLS will first place Orion into a low Earth orbit, and then, using its upper
stage, perform what's called a trans-lunar injection.
This maneuver is necessary to send Orion 280,000 miles beyond Earth and
40,000 miles beyond the Moon -- further than any spaceship capable of carrying
humans has ventured.
On its three-week mission, Orion will deploy 10 shoebox size satellites
known as CubeSats to gather information on the deep space environment.
Its "passengers" will include three mannequins collecting
radiation data, and a plush Snoopy toy, long a NASA mascot.
It will journey around the far side of the Moon, using thrust provided by
the European Space Agency (ESA) thruster, and finally make its way back to
Earth, where its heat shield will be tested against the atmosphere.
Splashdown takes place in the Pacific, off the coast of California.
Artemis-2 will be the first crewed test, flying around the Moon but not
landing, while Artemis-3, planned for 2025, will see the first woman and first
person of color touch down on the lunar south pole.
NASA wants to build a permanent presence on the Moon, and use it as a
proving ground for technologies necessary for a Mars mission, sometime in the
2030s, using a Block 2 evolution of the SLS.
- SLS v Starship -
NASA calls SLS a "super heavy lift exploration class vehicle." The
only currently operational super heavy rocket is SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, which
is smaller.
Elon Musk's company is also developing its own deep space rocket, the fully
reusable Starship, which he has said should be ready for an orbital test this
year.
Starship would be both bigger and more powerful than SLS: 394 feet tall with
17 million pounds of thrust. It could also be considerably cheaper.
The tycoon has suggested that within years, the cost per launch could be as
little as $10 million.
Direct comparisons are complicated by the fact that while SLS is designed to
fly direct to its destinations, SpaceX foresees putting a Starship into orbit,
and then refueling it with another Starship so it can continue its journey, to
extend range and payload.
NASA has also contracted a version of Starship as a lunar descent vehicle
for Artemis.
Other super heavy rockets under development include Blue Origin's New Glenn,
China's Long March 9 and Russia's Yenisei.
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