This file image shows the Space Launch System atop a moveable track that can take it from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad.
NASA will try again Monday, Nov. 14, to launch its Artemis 1 mission to the moon and could roll the big Space Launch System rocket back out to the launch pad as early as Friday, Nov. 4.
The rocket designed and tested at Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center will lift off at 11:07 p.m. CST, NASA said today. There is a 69-minute launch window.
Artemis 1 is planned as an uncrewed flight around the moon to test the rocket and the Orion crew capsule before flights with astronauts. It is the first of three Artemis test flights that would culminate in landing the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface.
NASA has requested backup two-hour launch windows for Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 12:04 a.m. CST and Saturday, Nov. 19, at 12:45 a.m. CST. A launch Nov. 14 would mean a mission of 25-and-a-half days with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, Dec. 9, NASA said.
Inspections and reviews over the last week have “confirmed minimal work is required to prepare the rocket and spacecraft” to roll out to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said.
Routine maintenance is planned to the rocket including repair of “minor damage to the foam and cork on the thermal protection system,” NASA said. Batteries on the rocket and several secondary payloads will be recharged or replaced.
One of those secondary payloads waiting for launch is NEA Scout, a miniature CubeSat developed designed and developed at Marshall in Huntsville. The experiment, which will test solar sails as a means of space travel, is led by Marshall scientist Les Johnson.
NASA in Huntsville has led development of the rocket since it was ordered by Congress and President Barack Obama in 2011. Its goals are to test systems that could support a mission to Mars and explore new discoveries about the moon since the Apollo program ended.
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