Over 4.1 million gather at Grand Mosque on 29th night of Ramadan    Myanmar earthquake death toll climbs to 144    Zelenskyy says new US draft minerals deal 'significantly differs,' rules out treating aid as a loan    Sudanese army says it has cleared final RSF positions in Khartoum    Trump renews push to acquire Greenland    Interior minister visits Grand Mosque operations center    Saudi Arabia prepares over 19,000 mosques and open-air prayer grounds for Eid Al-Fitr prayers    Reef Saudi bazaar celebrates rural heritage with traditional crafts and strong public turnout    World's largest barbershop opens at Clock Towers Center in Makkah to serve pilgrims    Saudi non-oil exports jump 10.7% in January    Saudi creatives shine at Jeddah's Fawanees Nights with art, fashion, and storytelling    OMODA&JAECOO Accelerate Global Expansion JAECOO J8 records strong first month orders in Saudi Arabia, J5 prepares for launch    LOT - The Value Shop makes its grand debut in Hafar Al-Batin    100 Thieves claim Marvel Rivals Invitational NA crown as 2025 scene heats up    T1 CEO confirms Gumayusi's return for LCK Spring after lineup shakeup    Bollywood actress vindicated over boyfriend's death after media hounding    Saudi Arabia hold Japan to goalless draw in Saitama to stay in World Cup hunt    Disney's Snow White film tops box office despite bad reviews    NewJeans announces hiatus after setback in court battle    George Foreman, heavyweight champion and cultural icon, dies at 76    Court rules against K-pop group NewJeans in record label dispute    Grand Mufti rules against posting prayers and preaching in mosques on social media    King Salman prays for peace and stability for Palestinians in Ramadan message King reaffirms Saudi Arabia's commitment to serving the Two Holy Mosques and pilgrims    Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan 'out of danger' after attack at home in Mumbai    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



NASA postpones launch of first Moon mission in 50 years due to engine issues
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 29 - 08 - 2022

A fuel leak and then an engine problem during final lift-off preparations led NASA to postpone the much-anticipated launch of its giant new Moon rocket on Monday.
The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday (Sept. 2) at the earliest.
NASA repeatedly stopped and re-started the fueling of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with super-cold hydrogen and oxygen because of a leak of highly explosive hydrogen in the same place that saw seepage during a dress rehearsal back in the spring.
Then, NASA ran into new trouble when it was unable to properly chill one of the rocket's four main engines, officials said. Engineers continued working to gather data and pinpoint the source of the problem after it was announced the launch was being scrubbed.
The Artemis 1 mission is a test flight of massive importance. The launch, which was originally scheduled for Monday during a two-hour window starting at 08:33 local time (14:33 CEST), will see an unmanned Orion module put into orbit around the Moon before returning to Earth 42 days later.
It will gather crucial data ahead of the next stages in the mission — a manned launch of the Orion module to lunar orbit, followed by the first mission to land humans on the Moon since 1972.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the scrubbed launch is "illustrative that this is a very complicated machine, a very complicated system, and all of those things have to work".
"You don't want to light the candle until its ready to go," he added, reminding viewers on NASA TV he was in the crew of the 24th flight of the space shuttle, a flight which was delayed four times before it launched on the fifth try.
This is the first stage of the Artemis mission, which has the ultimate goal of establishing a long-term presence on the Moon's surface.
NASA will launch an unmanned Orion spacecraft into orbit around the Moon on a test run to ensure manned missions are as safe as possible.
The Orion spacecraft will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on NASA's giant rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS).
It is, according to NASA, the world's most powerful rocket, able to carry more payload into deep space than any other vehicle.
Standing at almost 100 m tall, the SLS can deliver 4 million kg of thrust. Two minutes into launch, two boosters will detach from the rocket, followed by the core stage (which acts as the backbone of the rocket, doing most of the heavy lifting).
These parts will fall into the Pacific Ocean, as the Orion spacecraft continues on course toward the Moon.
Orion will travel 450,000 km from Earth, and thousands of kilometers beyond the Moon over the course of the four-to-six-week mission.
"We're going to stress it and test it. We're going to make it do things that we would never do with a crew on it in order to try to make it as safe as possible," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on Wednesday.
Orion will be propelled towards the Moon by a service module provided by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The Orion spacecraft, which is 3 m tall, can seat four astronauts. A full-size dummy in an orange flight suit is going to occupy the commander's seat for this flight, rigged with vibration and acceleration sensors.
Two other mannequins made of material simulating human tissue will measure cosmic radiation, which is one of the biggest risks of spaceflight.
The flight will also see ten shoebox-sized satellites pop off the capsule once it is en-route to the Moon, which will measure radiation, amongst other things.
After Artemis I comes Artemis 2 and 3, NASA's first manned lunar missions in five decades.
If everything had gone to plan for the first test mission on Aug. 29, the second test flight around the Moon — this time manned — was scheduled for 2024.
But as launch day for Artemis 1 saw takeoff scrubbed and the mission delayed once again, it is yet to be seen whether the later Artemis mission will also be pushed back.
Artemis 3 is scheduled to go ahead a year after Artemis 2. This will be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. It is also intended to be the first mission to land a woman on the Moon.
The missions will involve testing the systems needed to establish a gateway base in orbit around the Moon, which would be the base for lunar surface missions.
With a long-term presence established on or around the Moon, it would then be used for future missions further afield, including to Mars.
"This wasn't a one or two-person job. This was teams of hundreds of people that came in from different backgrounds, different experiences that all made this happen together," said Nicholas Nugent, a project engineer at Stennis Space Center.
"We're about to launch the rocket that these people built. How cool is that? You can say 'I worked on that rocket' and they're working on the second one and the third one and fourth one and the fifth one," said Lonnie Dutreix, director of Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The Artemis missions have been beset by delays and technical faults, so there was a lot of pressure on Monday's launch.
The cost of Artemis 1 has spiraled to $4 billion (€4 billion), and the entire program will have set NASA back at least $93 billion (€93 billion) by the time astronauts land once again on the Moon.
"This is a test flight, all right and it's not without risk. We have analyzed the risk as best we can, and we've mitigated also as best we can," Bob Cabana, NASA's Associate Administrator, said ahead of the launch.
"But we are stressing Orion beyond what it was actually designed for. In preparation for sending it to the Moon with a crew and we want to make sure that it works absolutely perfectly when we do that and that we understand all the risks. We're going to learn a lot from this test flight". — Euronews


Clic here to read the story from its source.