Nasa’s latest rocket demonstrates one of the biggest and most enduring frustrations that comes with launching new and complicated space technology: waiting.
Ahead of Monday’s event, experts in the space community also downplayed the odds of the SLS actually flying on schedule. Still Nasa gave it the agency’s best shot before an issue with one of the four main engines triggered a scrub. The earliest available opportunity to try again is on September 2, which Mike Sarafin, Nasa’s Artemis mission manager, said in a press conference was “definitely in play”. No decision has been made on rescheduling.
The Artemis mission will be the first major flight in Nasa’s ambitious plan to send the first woman and the first person of colour to the lunar surface as early as 2025. Artemis I is aimed at testing the components of the Space Launch System: the core rocket made by Boeing and the side boosters made by Northrop Grumman. A new deep-space crew capsule called Orion developed by Lockheed Martin will also get a trial.