NASA has set a new date for the next launch attempt of its Artemis 1 moon mission.
Artemis 1 will have a 69-minute launch window that opens at 12:07 a.m. EST (1707 GMT) on Nov. 14, during which it will attempt to send the Orion crew capsule to lunar orbit, NASA stated in an update today (Oct. 12).
The uncrewed mission will be the first test flight of NASA's new 322-foot-tall (98 meters) Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and the second-ever liftoff for Orion, which went to Earth orbit back in 2014.
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NASA has already made two attempts to launch Artemis 1, in late August and early September, which were scrubbed due to a rocket engine temperature issue and a fuel line leak, respectively.
Hurricane Ian then forced the Artemis 1 stack to be rolled back into the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, scuppering chances of a late September launch. The impacts of the storm also ruled out a launch opportunity in October, leading NASA to target a window between Nov. 12 and Nov. 27.
The good news is that inspections and analyses over the last week have confirmed that minimal work is required to prepare the rocket and spacecraft to roll out once again to KSC's Launch Pad 39B, NASA stated.
NASA has also requested a pair of two-hour backup launch windows, for Nov. 16 at 1:04 a.m. EST (0604 GMT) and Nov. 19 at 1:45 a.m., EST (0645 GMT).
A launch on Nov. 14 would result in a mission duration of about 25.5 days, with an Orion splashdown in the Pacific Ocean occurring on Dec. 9 to wrap everything up.
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