As reported by “BBC”, among other things, the countdown to the start at 40 minutes has been interrupted for ten minutes. The main problem is a turbine that is at too high a temperature. The engineers are currently working on creating the same temperature in all four engines of the moon rocket. To fix the problem, they asked the launch manager for more time.
A supposed crack in an intermediate container had previously been reported. This connects tanks containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. There was also talk of a leak in the hydrogen tank. According to a “BBC” reporter, who reports directly from Kennedy Space Center, the crack is not serious. It is most likely ice build-up on the core of the rocket.
The last human to have been on the moon was around 50 years ago – now the US space agency Nasa is pushing ahead with its next mission to the moon. A first unmanned test flight of the “Artemis” mission is scheduled to start on Monday (from 2:33 p.m. CEST). The “Orion” capsule is to take off from the Cape Canaveral cosmodrome with the help of the “Space Launch System” heavy-duty rocket, then orbit the moon and land again in the Pacific around 40 days later. The capsule’s supply and propulsion module, or ESM for short, was built by Airbus in Bremen. Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff are also expected at the launch in Cape Canaveral, the White House said.
The rocket system had previously been extensively tested twice at the spaceport. Both times various problems had arisen. Nevertheless, Nasa gave the green light for an unmanned test launch.
With the “Artemis” mission, US astronauts should actually land on the moon again by 2024, including a woman for the first time. This is now planned for 2025 at the earliest. Four astronauts are to be taken to lunar orbit in the Orion spacecraft, where two of them will then transfer to a lander. A kind of space station is also to be created on the moon, also as a basis for a manned flight to Mars – but this will only happen in the distant future.
The last human to have been on the moon in December 1972 was US astronaut Eugene Cernan, who died in 2017, on the Apollo 17 mission.
This time, there are two dolls on board “Orion”: Zohar and Helga. This is a project with German and Israeli participation. It is being tested whether a protective vest developed in Israel can effectively protect a female body in particular from dangerous space radiation.
For the “Artemis” mission, more than 30 billion dollars are initially estimated. In addition to NASA and the European Space Agency Esa, the space agencies of several other countries are also involved.
