She should have been completed by April. At that time, the giant rocket, the Martinitoren size in Groningen, was also ready on launch pad 39B in Florida. Not because she would be launched into space, but for a ‘wet dress rehearsal’: an exercise in which fuel is pumped into the rocket and the clock counts down as with a real launch.
This will be used to test the refueling, procedures and software before the real launch follows later this year. That unmanned test flight to the moon and back will go down in the books as mission ‘Artemis 1’. Mission 2 will follow in 2024, with people, but without a landing. Only at Artemis 3 (‘at the earliest in 2025’) will the first woman, among others, feel the gray grit crunch under her shoes.
Even more than that scoop, Americans – and Europeans, by the way, because ESA is the most important partner – is about prestige. After all, China also has its eye on the moon. In addition, they want to collect the technical knowledge needed on the moon to tame Mars as the next human destination.
Service Refusal Valves
First hurdle? Getting those SLS to work. But that turns out not to be so easy. Take 3 April: the rocket was ready, the counter ticked back, but something went wrong just before midnight. The fans in the mobile launch pad, which were supposed to prevent the accumulation of dangerous gases, were out of order. Nasa then canceled the test.
Something similar followed a day later. Another technical error, this time with different valves. However, they got a little further. Had the rocket been empty the day before, half of the liquid oxygen in the first rocket stage had now filled up. Another five days later, another valve suddenly refused service. When the next attempt failed again on April 14 – a leak in a hydrogen hose this time – it was decided to roll the rocket back to the hangar for upgrades.
On Sunday, about two months later, the resit is in the books. ‘My suspicion is that things will go well this time,’ says independent space consultant Erik Laan. “And if not, they’ll just try again. In any case, not launching the SLS rocket is not an option’.
If successful, NASA will get a little closer to the long-dreamed human return to the moon this weekend. A return that should lead to a new one one small step, echoing the Apollo optimism that made humanity feel that nothing is truly impossible. And that message has still not lost its power.