(CNN) The Artemis I gigantic moon rocket has reached the launch pad, and it will now take off on a mission to orbit the moon.
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers and engineers have been hard at work checking out and final testing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket. The wet dress rehearsal, a test that replicated every phase of launch without liftoff, required the rocket stack to make a few journeys to the launchpad in March and June.The actual event started on Tuesday evening.
On Monday, August 29, the Artemis team is aiming for its first two-hour launch window from 8:33 a.m. ET to 10:33 a.m. ET. Backup launch windows are scheduled for September 2 and September 5.
Similar to how the shuttle missions and Apollo Saturn V rockets previously did, the enormous 322-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) stack set off on a slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) voyage aboard one of the gigantic NASA crawlers from the Apollo period to the launchpad.The giant rocket stack was transported to the launchpad by the Artemis I team using the crawler-transporter 2.
The massive rocket stack and its portable launcher were transported by the 6.6 million pound (3 million kilogram) crawler at a peak speed of 1 mile per hour (1.6 kilometers per hour). After a roughly 10-hour voyage, the rocket stack arrived at the launchpad on Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. ET.
Two crawlers, including the famous one, have been in use at Kennedy Space Center for more than 50 years. According to NASA, the enormous transporters, which were initially used in 1965, can each carry 18 million pounds (8.2 million kilograms), or the weight of more than 20 fully loaded 777 airplanes. A professional baseball diamond could fit on top of each of the crawlers due to their extreme width.Engineers and technicians will get the rocket stack ready for launch now that it has arrived.
The unmanned Artemis I will take off on a mission that departs from Earth, travels beyond the moon, and then returns. After launch, the spacecraft will travel 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) in 42 days to a far-off retrograde orbit around the moon. On October 10, Artemis I will make a splash in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. Orion's return to Earth will be faster and hotter than any other spacecraft has ever encountered.
According to NASA, the Orion spacecraft will reach a distance of 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side of the moon, surpassing any previous human-built spacecraft in flight.Orion will carry 120 pounds (54.4 kilograms) of souvenirs, including toys, Apollo 11 memorabilia, and three mannequins, even though there are no humans aboard.
Commander Moonikin Campos, a suit-clad mannequin that can gather information on what potential future human crews would go through on a lunar journey, will be in the pilot's seat of Orion. The new Orion Crew Survival System suit made for astronauts to wear during launch and descent will be on display on the mannequin. Two radiation sensors are part of the suit.Helga and Zohar, two "phantoms," will take the other Orion seats. The soft tissue, organs, and bones of a woman are imitated in the construction of these mannequin torsos. To assess the amount of radiation exposure that occurs during the trip, the two torsos each feature 34 radiation detectors and more than 5,600 sensors.
This mission will launch NASA's Artemis program, which intends to send people back to the moon by 2025 and land the first woman and first person of color there, paving the way for future manned missions to Mars.
Several scientific experiments will also be carried by Artemis I, some of which will be set up when the rocket and spacecraft get to the launchpad.
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