Labels

Artemis 1 - Part II

 

(credit: Prathamesh Jaju)

NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket going for 2nd launch try today 

Update, 11:28 a.m. EDT Saturday, Sept. 3: The Artemis 1 mission has been scrubbed due to a fuel leak. The next possible opportunity is Monday (Sept. 5)


Where were you when history was made on the moon? Folks had their eyes glued to their televisions (Only three channels available: ABC, CBS, and NBC). Others listened to their radios. And many walking the earth today, like me, hadn't been born yet.

I was around for the last manned mission to the moon. Apollo 17 took place between 7 and 19 December 1972. It was a 12-day mission and broke many records, the longest space walk, the longest lunar landing and the largest lunar samples brought back to Earth. I was too young to remember any of it.

I remember the first Shuttle launch. One of the astronauts had walked on the moon only 9 years prior. The program was a marriage of old and new tech. My father was an engineer for a company that worked on the fire systems at Cape Canaveral. It was in 1981. I was 10.

People are asking why we won't land on the moon this mission. We got there in the '60s. We should be able to land in the 2020s. 

The first few Apollo mission were unmanned missions to test various aspects of the Apollo program - Launch vehicle, CSM, LM, and their inter-play. Likewise, the Artemis launch today will test various aspects of the new program.

 

((Image credit: NASA)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It's launch day again for NASA's new moon rocket.

NASA is counting down for its second launch attempt of the Artemis 1 moon mission, a critical test flight of the agency's new Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion spacecraft. The mission will lift off from Pad 39B here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center today (Sept. 3) at 2:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT). You can watch it launch live online starting at 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT).

Today's launch attempt comes on the heels of one on Monday (Aug. 29), which NASA called off due to an engine cooling issue that was ultimately traced to a bad sensor. NASA engineers also had to fix a fuel leak on the SLS rocket and solve a vent valve issue in that attempt, too. Now, the agency is ready to fly again. 

By Tariq Malik published about 10 hours ago

But it was scrubbed. I won't complain. Another Challenger event would be bad. I watched that one live. Technology progressed enough for classroom TVs. 

Nobody in the 1960s could predict that we would one day stare at our phones to watch a launch. The NASA channel didn't exist. Launch updates took forever. But now?

It's better to be safe than sorry today. I look forward to the next window. Watch with me? We'll be there when history is made.


As for that moon banner above:

One talented teen has become a favorite online after sharing his impressive and extremely detailed photo of the moon itself. Prathamesh Jaju, a 16-year-old resident of Pune, India, says the image is a composite that took more than 50,000 shots and over 40 hours to create.

The crystal clear photograph uses components of thousands of shots taken over a four-hour period and then processed for another 40. First shared on Reddit by Jaju, the photo shows craters, textures, dips, shadows, and a variety of colors among other details the naked human eye isn't able to see.

"On May third, I went on my terrace at around 1 p.m. and took multiple shots of the moon on different portions and stitched them together. I have a telescope which is automated, it tracks the objects according to the earth's rotation, I used it to capture the moon's movements."

Click on the image to see the details. It's impressive!
 

 

Email Post
Tags