Is Artemis’ boot-up worrisome?

The launch of NASA’s New Moon rocket, the world’s most powerful, was called off Monday due to a technical problem. The US space agency said the mission could still take place during the next firing window.

Will the Artemis 1 mission be able to take off in the next few days? While NASA’s new moon rocket liftoff on Monday was canceled due to a technical problem, the next launch window will be possible on Friday, according to the US space agency.

“We reserve the Friday option,” Mike Sarafin, in charge of the mission, told a news conference, without wanting to go any further.

NASA teams should resume analyzes Tuesday to get a better idea of ​​how long it will take to resolve issues that have arisen, particularly regarding one of the engines.

The launch, originally scheduled for 8:33 a.m. (2:33 p.m. French time) from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, was canceled due to a problem with one of the four engines, under the rocket’s main stage.

‘Caution is in order’

“If we can solve this problem from the launch pad within the next 48 or 72 hours, then Friday is completely possible,” NASA added during a press conference. The space agency should hold a new information point at midnight on Tuesday, French time, to announce whether a Friday launch date has been chosen.

This delay is not exceptional in the history of space exploration. Given the content of the mission, which is intended to test equipment, before a manned flight, “care must be taken,” ESA astronaut Philippe Perrin explains at the BFMTV microphone.

“We are not on a normal flight but on a test flight (…) the idea was not to do a specific mission but to calibrate the equipment,” adds the astronaut.

“We always prefer good postponing decisions to being overly daring anyway,” astronaut Jean-Francois Clairvoy repeats. Especially since the launch of this missile, the most powerful in the world, is the first. “It’s absolutely normal to launch a first, a first machine, a first rocket of this size,” confirms Francois Forget, a planetary scientist and director of research at CNRS.

“Don’t light the candle until you’re sure of the shot,” NASA chief Bill Nelson told the press.

The first step towards Mars

If it doesn’t take off on Friday, there will be another chance on Monday, September 5th. Then the possibility of taking off stopped until September 19.

The mission is to push the unmanned Orion capsule into lunar orbit, to verify that the craft is safe for future astronauts — including the first woman and first person of color to walk on the moon.

This trip to the Moon is the first of several that are supposed to eventually allow humans to reach Mars.