“We don’t launch until its right,” said Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator, remarking on the aborted Artemis 1 launch shortly after the launch director announced that the mission is scrubbed. The mission has been postponed due to an issue with one of the RS-25 engines which powers the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
The next launch window is not far off. It is between 12.48 PM and 2.48 PM EST on September 2 (Between 10.18 PM IST on September 2 and 12.18 AM IST on September 3), according to Forbes. If the space agency can’t make that date, there is another launch window between 5.12 PM and 6.42 PM EST on September 5. But NASA hasn’t yet confirmed whether it will make another attempt during one of those launch dates. Here is what is next for the mission.
NASA Artemis 1: What happens next
NASA teams will be analysing what went wrong with engine number 3 of the SLS rocket’s core stage while it is still fuelled. But in theory, that shouldn’t take too long because the RS-25 engine is not a new engine that the space agency is testing for the first time.
In fact, NASA began developing the RS-25 in 1970 and it was first used to power the STS-1 space shuttle orbital in 1981.
Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin hinted that the launch could still happen this week during the post-scrub press conference. “Friday is definitely in play. We just need a little bit of time to look at the data. But the team is setting up for a 96-hour recycle,” said Sarafin during the conference, according to Space.com. But that isn’t to say that NASA will be rushing the launch.
“I have some personal experience on the 24th flight of the space shuttle. We scrubbed four times but the fifth time was a perfect mission. We know that if we had launched on any of the previous attempts, it would not have been a good mission,” said Nelson during his remarks. Nelson was a payload specialist on the STS-61-C space shuttle mission.
While the RS-25 engine may be a remnant of the space shuttle era, the SLS rocket isn’t. The most powerful rocket ever built yet is an incredibly complex system of multiple engines, stages, fuels and configurations. Further, for Artemis I, the SLS rocket will be tested and stressed to its limits to ensure that it is safe and capable enough for future crewed missions.
The SLS is not designed to be reused. Unlike SpaceX’s planned Starship super heavy lift vehicle, the SLS rocket can only be used for one launch. According to a NASA report, the SLS Orion system is expected to cost about $4.1 billion per launch, with the agency expecting to spend at least $93 billion on the development and deployment of the Artemis program by 2025. So even though a launch this week is still on the cards, NASA is unlikely to go forward with the mission till every kink has been ironed out.
NASA plans to hold a press conference at 3.30 AM IST on August 31 to give updates regarding the mission where more details and clarity is expected.