NASA will conduct a critical fuel test of its Artemis 1 moon rocket today (Sept. 21), which you can watch live.
Technicians are about to begin loading supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants into Artemis 1. Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket today at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT). You can watch it live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly through the space agency.
Artemis 1 Orion will use the SLS to launch the capsule from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to lunar orbit and back. The test flight was supposed to start at the end of last month, but was delayed twice by glitches, the second of which Liquid hydrogen leak It occurred in the lead-up to the planned liftoff on September 3.
Related: NASA’s Artemis 1 lunar mission: Live updates
Further: NASA’s Artemis 1 lunar mission illustrated in photos
Artemis 1 team Replaced two seals At the site of the leak, a “quick disconnect” connects the SLS center stage to the fuel line from its mobile launch tower. Today’s test will help determine if that fix worked. If all goes well, work will continue starting on September 27, with a backup opportunity on October 2.
It’s unclear how long today’s trial will last; A Update on Friday (opens in new tab) (Sept. 16), NASA officials wrote that “the test will end when its objectives are met.”
A refueling test is not the only spaceflight activity. A Russian Soyuz rocket is scheduled to launch astronauts Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitry Petlin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio. International Space Station 9:54 a.m. EDT (1354 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Check it out here on Space.com when you have time.
NASA’s first mission was Artemis 1 Artemis Project, which aims to establish a long-term human presence the moon By the end of the 2020s. If all goes well with Artemis 1, Artemis 2 will orbit the moon in 2024 and Artemis 3 will land people near the moon’s south pole a year or two later.
By Mike Wall “outside (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Carl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelWall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
“Friend of animals everywhere. Devoted analyst. Total alcohol scholar. Infuriatingly humble food trailblazer.”