Space history books will remember that, on Wednesday November 16, 2022, half a century after completing the Apollo adventure, the United States set off for the Moon with the first mission of its Artemis program. At 7:48 Paris time, flanked by its two powder thrusters, the massive SLS (Space Launch System) rocket detached from launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral (Florida), carrying an Orion spacecraft. without passengers .
This Artemis-1 mission is in fact considered a validation test of the launcher – of which it is the maiden flight – but also of Orion, in particular for the ability of its heat shield to resist the return to the Earth’s atmosphere at the staggering speed of 40,000 km /h. It is therefore not a question, for obvious safety reasons, of placing human beings on top of the rocket during this dress rehearsal. This too was carried out in several stages because, before take-off on 16 November, two attempts were made, on 29 August and then on 3 September. Each time the countdown was interrupted due to technical problems, in particular leaks when filling the tanks. NASA rescheduled the liftoff for Sept. 27, but had to cancel it due to the threat Hurricane Ian posed to Florida. As a precaution, the SLS was repaired in its assembly building. Once back on the launch pad, the rocket again faced winds from Tropical Storm Nicole before it could finally take off.
With humans in 2024
This Wednesday, an hour and a half after liftoff, Orion left Earth orbit and was “injected” on its trajectory towards the Moon. On November 25, the capsule will be placed in orbit around the natural satellite of the Earth. A very eccentric and very wide orbit as Orion will approach less than 100 kilometers from the lunar surface and then move away from it up to 64,000 kilometers, which will take it further into space than any other habitable spacecraft ever gone.
After circling the Moon, Orion will begin its return journey and land by parachute in the Pacific Ocean off California, where it will be picked up by the US Navy. It will be December 11, at the end of a twenty-five day odyssey, the longest journey that a space capsule designed for man will have made outside the Earth’s orbit. During this journey of more than 2 million kilometers, NASA teams will test the ship’s systems.
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