NASAs most powerful rocket yet is set to blast off Monday on the maiden voyage of a mission to take humans back to the Moon, and eventually to Mars.
Fifty years after the last time astronauts set foot on the moon in 1972 as part of the Apollo 17 mission, the space program called Artemis is to get under way with the blast off of the uncrewed 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at 8:33 am (1233 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Tens of thousands of people including US Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to gather along the beach to watch the launch, which has been decades in the making.
Hotels around Cape Canaveral are booked solid with between 100,000 and 200,000 spectators expected to attend the launch.
The goal of the flight, dubbed Artemis 1, is to test the SLS and the Orion crew capsule that sits atop the rocket.
The capsule will orbit the Moon to see if the vessel is safe for people in the near future. At some point, Artemis will see a woman and a person of color walk on the Moon for the first time.
This mission goes with a lot of hopes and dreams of a lot of people. And we now are the Artemis generation, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday.
The massive orange-and-white rocket has been sitting on the space centers Launch Complex 39B for more than a week.
Its fuel tanks began to be filled overnight Sunday to Monday, with NASAs Exploration Ground Systems tweeting that they have been given a go for tanking.
But there was a brief delay of about an hour because of a high risk of lightning when the fueling operations were set to begin.
The process will continue for several hours, until the rocket is filled with more than three million liters of liquid hydrogen and oxygen.
NASA said there is an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather for a liftoff on time at the beginning of a launch window lasting two hours.
For the first time a woman Charlie Blackwell-Thompson will give the final green light for liftoff.
Women now account for 30 percent of the staff in the control room; there was just one for the Apollo 11 mission, the first time astronauts landed on the moon in 1969.
Cameras will capture every moment of the 42-day trip, including a picture of the spacecraft with the Moon and Earth in the background.
The Orion capsule will orbit around the Moon, coming within 60 miles (100 kilometers) at its closest approach and then firing its engines to get to a distance 40,000 miles beyond, a record for a spacecraft rated to carry humans.
Besides the weather, any kind of technical snafu could delay the liftoff at the last minute, NASA officials have said, stressing that this is a test flight.
If the rocket is unable to take off on Monday, September 2 and 5 have been penciled in as alternative flight dates.
One of the primary objectives of the mission is to test the capsules heat shield, which at 16 feet in diameter is the largest ever built.
On its return to the Earths atmosphere, the heat shield will have to withstand a speed of 25,000 miles per hour and a temperature of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). That is half as hot as the Sun.
Dummies fitted with sensors will take the place of real crew members, recording acceleration, vibration and radiation levels.
The craft will deploy small satellites to study the lunar surface.
A complete failure would be devastating for a program that is costing $4.1 billion per launch and is already running years behind schedule.
Mondays launch is not a near-term sprint, but a long-term marathon to bring the solar system and beyond into our sphere, said Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for technology, policy and strategy.
The next mission, Artemis 2, will take astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing on its surface. The crew of Artemis 3 is to land on the Moon in 2025 at the earliest.
And since humans have already visited the Moon, Artemis has its sights set on another lofty goal an eventual crewed mission to Mars.
The Artemis program is to establish a lasting human presence on the Moon with an orbiting space station known as Gateway and a base on the surface.
Gateway would serve as a staging and refueling station for a voyage to Mars that would take a minimum of several months.
by Lucie AUBOURG
Follow this link:
NASA shoots for the Moon, on its way to Mars - Macau Business
- Air Macau: Everything You Need To Know - Simple Flying - September 7th, 2023 [September 7th, 2023]
- Oktoberfest returns to MGM Cotai from 12 to 23 October - Inside Asian Gaming - September 7th, 2023 [September 7th, 2023]
- ONE CENTRAL MACAU Celebrates the Year of Picasso with "Pablo ... - ZAWYA - September 7th, 2023 [September 7th, 2023]
- GGRAsia Criminalising illicit money swap biz an option: Macau govt - GGRAsia - September 7th, 2023 [September 7th, 2023]
- Macau shows elevated baseline demand levels as GGR reaches ... - Yogonet International - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- International business rises for Macau's banking sector in Q1 - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Macau woman who 'fell in love' with Nottingham starts takeaway - Nottinghamshire Live - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Global leaders in infrastructure to gather for investment forum in ... - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Car rental businesses upbeat as driving licence recognition takes ... - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Macau pupils show resilience in reading performance amid Covid ... - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Chinese electric car brands set sights on Europe - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- MACAU DAILY TIMES PJ warns on ticket fraud ... - Macau Daily Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Nine migrants found from group abducted in Mexico - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Blinken condemns attack on US convoy in Nigeria - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- MACAU DAILY TIMES Association head calls for ... - Macau Daily Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- MACAU DAILY TIMES Meghan, Duchess of Sussex ... - Macau Daily Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Tanzanian traders strike over high taxes in rare protest - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Italy floods kill at least two - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Indiana Jones: six things to know - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- MACAU DAILY TIMES Inter beats city rival to reach first ... - Macau Daily Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Titanic shipwreck captured in first full digital scan - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Chinese fishing vessel capsizes in Indian Ocean with 39 missing - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Canada's Trudeau wants to be 'best of friends' with South Korea - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- MACAU DAILY TIMES Smart ball technology to be ... - Macau Daily Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Taipa-Barra LRT connection operational by year-end - Secretary - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 'Pushing back': G7 seeks influence with expanded guestlist - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Markets mixed as sluggish debt talks worry investors - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- SolarWinds Adds Transformative AI Features to IT Service ... - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Asian football probes 'acts of violence' after red cards mar final - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The second life of Hiroshima's origami cranes - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Commerzbank profits soar on higher interest rates - Macau Business - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- MACAU DAILY TIMES 20% of population using 5G - Macau Daily Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 8 Best Things to Do in Macau - China Discovery - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Sassy's Quick Guide To Macau - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Macau overtakes London as the worlds new five-star hotel capital - Style - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- Macau - United States Department of State - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Macau Casinos Head for Worst Year on Record Due to Covid Squeeze - Bloomberg - December 2nd, 2022 [December 2nd, 2022]
- Macau advances digital currency acceptance, but will casinos accept? - CoinGeek - October 21st, 2022 [October 21st, 2022]
- Could China be planning two more years of COVID-zero? Experts outline impact on Macau - Inside Asian Gaming - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- New CPC leadership to be unveiled on Oct 23 - Macau Business - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Asia round-up: Steve Wynns, the unknown of Macau, blacklist confusion & Crown - Gambling Insider - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Argentina records highest inflation in 30 years - Macau Business - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Memorandum on Presidential Determination with Respect to the Efforts of Foreign Governments Regarding Trafficking in Persons - The White House - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- OPINION - Prelude to Chinas 20th Party Congress - Macau Business - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Rising prices lead to growing civil unrest in Haiti: UN - Macau Business - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- The Macau Grand Prix Is Back On The Calendar, Bikes To Return? - RideApart - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Gregory May Takes Office as Consul General of the U.S in Hong Kong and Macau - The Epoch Times - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Retail and F&B with considerable drop in receipts in July - Macau Business - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Twilight of the Tigris: Iraq's mighty river drying up - Macau Business - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Too weak to cry: famine looms over Somalia's children - Macau Business - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- MACAU DAILY TIMES ISAF working on a new regime for small-scale medical devices and cosmetics - Macau Daily Times - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Biden warns China and Russia, hedges on seeking reelection - Macau Business - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Britain and the world say farewell to Queen Elizabeth II - Macau Business - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Is Macau now the number one place in the world for gamblers to visit - Travel Daily News International - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- After 18 years visiting Macau, 13 years living in Macau and 933 days trapped in Macau, it's time to go - Inside Asian Gaming - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Council monitoring situation in Macau after three officials apply to extend visas - - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Products of New Zealand, Vanuatu shipped to China for import fair - Macau Business - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- UN summit returns in person to world of divisions - Macau Business - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard moved to US military base - Macau Business - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Number of active U.S. drilling rigs up this week - Macau Business - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Millions told to seek shelter as Japan warns on Typhoon Nanmadol - Macau Business - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Owner of Vietnam bar arrested after blaze that killed 32 - Macau Business - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- Biden meets relatives of Americans jailed in Russia - Macau Business - September 17th, 2022 [September 17th, 2022]
- The show must go on and attract tourists - Macau Business - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Cuba works to keep sport of karting alive - Macau Business - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- China's jobless youth left in the lurch - Macau Business - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- OPINION - Challenges and opportunities in Chinas relations with South Korea - Macau Business - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- MGM China to inject $594 million into Macau unit to re-tender for casino license - Reuters - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Macau's casino losses exceed $2B mark in H1 as they await bidding process; recovery not expected until 2023 - Yogonet International - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- F3 Macau Grand Prix that made Ferrari to create $12 Million per year earning superstar Charles Leclerc - The Sportsrush - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Special Report - PTSD in the aftermath - Macau Business - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Macau casinos to be allowed to take deposits from patrons as long as no monetary interest is offered - Yogonet International - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Adidas CEO Rorsted to stand down in 2023 - Macau Business - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- China begins shipment of high-speed trains to Indonesia - Macau Business - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Portugal on alert over fears of fresh wildfire threat - Macau Business - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Gov't pledges to boost rights protection efforts for people with disabilities - Macau Daily Times - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- iZeno becomes the first APAC Partner to achieve Atlassian ITSM specialisation - Macau Business - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Myanmar grandfather on mission to revive juggling art - Macau Business - August 23rd, 2022 [August 23rd, 2022]
- Covid-hit Macau reopens beaches but bans swimming - FRANCE 24 English - July 31st, 2022 [July 31st, 2022]
- Madagascar hunts gang that killed 32 in burning homes - Macau Business - July 31st, 2022 [July 31st, 2022]