Page 1 - Spec Tech Vol 1 Issue 09
P. 1
Dr. MGR-ACS Space Technology Centre
SPACE EXPLORER
“An Ingress to Borderless world”
Volume 01/Issue-09 Bimonthly 16-30, November 2022
Nasa’s Artemis 1, most powerful rocket in
history, blasts off to moon
Image Credit: NASA
NASA launched the Artemis I mission from Orion reaching orbit around the Earth at about
Florida at 1:47 a.m. ET on 16th November 2 a.m. ET and firing its engines about two
morning, with the agency’s most powerful hours after launch to begin the multi-day trip to
rocket ever kicking off a nearly month-long the moon.
journey with a ground-shaking lift-off.
The next major milestone is set for Nov. 21,
While no astronauts are onboard, the Space when Orion will make its closest approach to
Launch System (SLS) rocket carried the the moon of 60 miles above the surface. To
Orion capsule to space in a demonstration return, Orion will use the moon’s gravity to as-
for NASA’s lunar program. Artemis I will not sist it in setting a trajectory back into Earth’s
land on the moon, but the spacecraft will orbit. Artemis I will travel about 1.3 million
orbit nearby before returning to Earth in 26 miles over the course of the mission.
days. In the final hours of the countdown, a The mission represents a crucial inflection
hydrogen leak in a valve threatened to delay point in NASA’s moon plans, with the program
the launch. With SLS nearly fully fueled, a delayed for years and running billions of
small group known as the “red team” was dollars over budget. The Artemis program
sent out to the launchpad and into the “blast represents a series of missions with escalating
danger area” to try to fix the problem. The goals. The third – tentatively scheduled for
team was able to tighten hardware on the 2025 – is expected to return astronauts to the
leaky valve and returned to safety, with lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo
NASA’s launch then able to proceed.
era.
So far the mission is going as planned, with
Space Explorer 2022 1
