NASA’s new November targets mean a night launch for Artemis

When NASA can finally light its giant candle for the Artemis I lunar mission, it will light up the night sky over Florida with three launch dates in November, all falling after midnight to lift off from Kennedy Space Center.

NASA’s first attempt to launch the Orion space capsule-topped Space Launch System rocket falls on Monday, November 14, with a 69-minute window opening at 00:07. Two two-hour backup windows are available on Wednesday, November 16 starting at 1:04 am and Saturday, November 19 at 1:45 am

If it goes up, the SLS, with its 8.8 million pounds of thrust at launch, would become the most powerful rocket ever launched from Earth, beating the Apollo missions’ Saturn V rockets.

Next month’s full moon falls on November 8th, so the first attempt should show a waning crescent moon still rising high in the eastern sky at midnight. Florida’s notorious afternoon showers during the summer won’t be as much of a problem during the nighttime hours either.

If it hits its first target, the unmanned Orion capsule would make multiple orbits around the Moon, farther from Earth than any other human-rated spacecraft, before departing for a splashdown on Dec. 9 after more than 25 days Pacific Ocean returns.

Each month offers approximately two-week windows in which Artemis can attempt its flight attempts, with the November window running from November 12th to November 27th. Certain days are not available in every window due to the positions of the earth, moon and other factors.

Artemis I’s primary purpose is to ensure Orion can handle the extremes of a lunar mission, including arriving at more than 24,500 miles per hour hotter than any other previously human-rated capsule generating over 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit on re-entry.

If it can handle the trip, NASA can move forward with Artemis II with four people on board for another orbital lunar trip in 2024, followed by Artemis III, which aims to bring humans, including the first woman, to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 landed in 1972. That flight won’t happen until 2025 at the earliest, but it also depends on SpaceX developing a version of its under-development Starship rocket to ferry astronauts from Orion to the lunar surface.

NASA, in its year-long effort to get Artemis I on the ground, had to chafe two previous launch attempts, with liquid hydrogen being injected into the SLS from the mobile launch vehicle’s plumbing, which proved to be a consistent culprit. Although NASA fixed issues at KSC’s launch pad 39-B after the final scrub on September 3, teams decided to protect their $4.1 billion rocket and spacecraft from the threat of Hurricane Ian, eventually blazing a trail that would take them right over the space center.

Once safely back in the vehicle assembly building, teams can recharge the batteries of its self-destruct mechanism, as well as the batteries of some small satellites that are hitchhiked and deployed after Orion breaks away from the low-Earth orbit.

Inspection of the hardware showed minimal work required, including some repairs of minor damage to the foam and cork that make up the rocket’s thermal protection system before it rolls back to the launch pad.

It will be the fourth time the 5.75 million-pound, 322-foot-tall hardware on Tracked Transporter 2 has made the trip to the pad, having previously ventured to two wet dress rehearsals in the spring and then returned for its first launch attempts in mid August.

This four-mile journey could take place as early as Friday, November 4th.

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