NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft aboard the mobile launch unit at Launch Site 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in the United States on November 4, 2022. Visual China Map
Xinhua News Agency reported on November 6 that the new generation of the US moon landing rocket "Space Launch System" returned to the launch pad on the 4th, ready to try again.
According to the Associated Press, the 98-meter-high rocket left the final assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the night of the 3rd, and took nearly 9 hours to arrive at the launch pad 6.4 kilometers away early on the 4th.
According to NASA's plan, the "Space Launch System" carrying the "Orion" spacecraft is scheduled to be launched on the 14th to launch an unmanned flight test code-named "Artemis 1" around the moon. A 69-minute launch window will begin at 12:07 that day. Meteorologists are closely monitoring local weather changes.
The "Space Launch System" has stood on the launch pad for more than a month since mid-August this year, but it missed the launch opportunity three times due to technical problems such as fuel liquid hydrogen leakage and hurricane landing, and was finally transported back to the final assembly building for maintenance.
Cliff Lanham, the head of NASA, said it was unclear why liquid hydrogen leaked every time the rocket was refueled, but engineers were confident they could deal with the situation again.
The entire "Artemis 1" mission is expected to last about 25 days. If all goes well with the launch mission on the 14th, after entering space, the "Orion" spacecraft will be separated from the "Space Launch System", carrying a mannequin to fly around the moon, and is expected to return to Earth on December 9.
The Artemis program, which aims to return U.S. astronauts to the moon, has been delayed several times due to budget constraints and other reasons, and is currently scheduled to achieve this goal by the end of 2025 at the earliest. According to the plan, only after the unmanned flight test "Artemis 1" is successful, can the "Artemis 2" manned flight test around the moon be carried out, and finally the "Artemis 2" manned flight test can be carried out. 3" moon landing mission.