Berliner Tageszeitung - Uncrewed Artemis I mission to Moon pushed back

NYSE - LSE

RELX	0.65%	45.89	$
BCC	0.77%	123.19	$
RIO	-0.05%	59.2	$
BCE	0.26%	22.9	$
SCS	0.68%	11.73	$
NGG	-0.27%	58.86	$
RBGPF	100%	59.8	$
RYCEF	-0.14%	7.24	$
CMSC	-0.56%	23.77	$
BTI	0.11%	36.26	$
GSK	-0.09%	34.03	$
VOD	0.71%	8.43	$
CMSD	0.42%	23.65	$
AZN	-0.5%	66.3	$
BP	0.14%	28.79	$
JRI	0.41%	12.15	$

Uncrewed Artemis I mission to Moon pushed back

ECONOMY 02.02.2022

Uncrewed Artemis I mission to Moon pushed back

The first mission in NASA's program to take humans back to the Moon has been delayed until spring at the earliest, the US space agency said Wednesday, saying it needed more time to complete safety checks.

Text size:

The Artemis I launch, initially scheduled for late 2021 and then postponed twice more, will now happen no earlier than April.

"Teams are taking operations a step at a time to ensure the integrated system is ready to safely launch the Artemis I mission. NASA is reviewing launch opportunities in April and May," NASA said in a statement.

Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test, but will signal the real start of the program, which could eventually see the first woman and the first person of color to step foot on the Moon.

Artemis I also will be the first flight of the massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will carry the Orion capsule to the Moon, where it will be put into orbit before returning to Earth.

The testing of the SLS system, which had been set for this month, is now expected to take place at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in March, NASA said.

For that test, the rocket will be moved to the launch pad, fueled up and the launch sequence initiated -- except for the actual take-off.

This test will then help the US space agency set an actual launch date.

There is no "specific" issue that sparked the additional delays, Tom Whitmeyer, the deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA Headquarters in Washington, told reporters.

"It could be something as simple as a scratch that needs to be polished out or some paint that needs to be fixed. There's just a lot of that -- it's a really big vehicle," he said.

A few months ago, a government audit indicated that Artemis I would likely take place "in the summer of 2022."

H. Müller--BTZ

Featured

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: what to know 20 years on

Survivors and victims' relatives will next week mark the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 220,000 people across more than a dozen countries.

Russian state owner says cargo ship blast was 'terrorist attack'

A "terrorist act" sank the cargo ship that went down in international waters in the Mediterranean this week, the Russian state-owned company that owns the vessel said Wednesday.

Sweeping Vietnam internet law comes into force

New Vietnamese internet rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities came into force on Wednesday, in what critics say is the latest attack on freedom of expression.

Thousands attend Christmas charity dinner in Buenos Aires

Some 3,000 homeless people sat down for a festive Christmas charity dinner on Tuesday in the center of Buenos Aires, at a time when more than half of Argentina's population is affected by poverty, one year into ultra-liberal Javier Milei's term in office.