Artemis 1 rocket is ready for launch on November 23

As the Artemis 1 rocket assembly and spacecraft move toward the launch pad, NASA officials announced that they are confident of a November 14 launch.

The Artemis 1 mission set consisting of the huge rocket "Space launch System" (SLS) and the spacecraft "Orion" (Orion) today, November 4 (November 13) at 12:01 am EST ( 07:31 Tehran time) once again started the transfer process from the vehicle assembly building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to the launch pad 39B. They had been brought to the pad three more times, once in March and June for pre-launch refueling tests and again in mid-August for two failed launch attempts. Finally, due to Hurricane Ian and the need for technical repairs, they were returned to the assembly building on September 27 (October 5). Despite these failures, NASA officials emphasized in their new press conference that The new timeline of the mission supports the launch at 12:07 a.m. EDT (07:37 Tehran time) on November 14.

Jim Frey ( "If we weren't sure, we wouldn't have taken the assembly out of the assembly building and started the countdown to launch," said Jim Free, NASA's vice president for exploration systems development. We're confident that we're moving forward.

Now, after finishing work in the assembly building, the rocket assembly is placed on the giant crawler and slowly moves towards the launch pad. This process is carried out while, according to Frey, the repeated cancellation of the mission and the prolongation of the launch process did not affect the professional activity of the staff. They are healthy hardware and doing things right. We welcome criticism of the delay and will be held accountable for it, but such an approach will never put us in a position where we are under pressure to launch too quickly or make bad decisions."

During the Artemis 1 mission, An unmanned Orion spacecraft will make a long journey to orbit the moon and return. This is the first mission in NASA's "Artemis" lunar exploration program, under which humans will land on the moon again after many years, and finally, by the end of this decade, it will establish a permanent human presence on the Earth's moon.

Cover photo: Artemis 1 mission rocket and spacecraft set to launch pad
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Source: Space