NASA's Moon rocket is ready for a second launch attempt.

On September 2, 2022, the Artemis I unmanned lunar rocket is positioned on the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad. Photo: AFP  

KENNEDY SPACE CENTRE: NASA will try again on Saturday to launch its brand-new 30-story rocket and send its unmanned test capsule toward the Moon after technical glitches prevented its initial attempt.

NASA will make history if the enormous Space Launch System (SLS) successfully launches, as it will be the first mission under the Artemis programme to plan a return to the Moon, 50 years after the last Apollo mission.

 With a potential two-hour delay, the launch from Florida's Kennedy Space Center is slated for 2:17pm (1817 GMT).

Jeremy Parsons, the Kennedy Space Center's deputy manager of exploration ground systems, declared on Friday that "our team is prepared."

"They are improving with each attempt, and they actually had a fantastic performance at launch countdown number one... We will definitely go, in my opinion, if the hardware and weather cooperate"

Although the area of the launch site will be off-limits to the general public, 400,000 people are anticipated to congregate on nearby beaches to watch and hear the most potent rocket that NASA has ever launched make its way into space.

After engineers discovered a fuel leak and a sensor revealed that one of the rocket's four main engines was running too hot, NASA's maiden launch attempt on Monday was aborted.

The launch team reported that these problems have since been fixed.

Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson got the go-ahead to begin putting cryogenic fuel in the rocket's tanks just before 6:00 am (1000 GMT).

Expect to pump about three million liters of extremely cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen into the spaceship.

Additionally, it looks like the weather will cooperate: according to the US Space Force, there is an 80% likelihood of favourable weather later in the launch window compared to a 60% chance at liftoff.

There are backup options for Monday or Tuesday if something forces NASA to cease operations once more on Saturday. The Moon's position will prevent the following launch window from opening until September 19 after that.

The Orion capsule, which is attached to the SLS rocket, will be tested during the Artemis 1 mission to ensure that it can safely transport astronauts in the future.

In place of the astronauts on the flight, mannequins with sensors will measure radiation, vibration, and acceleration.

Apollo's identical twin

The spacecraft will take several days to arrive at the Moon, flying at a distance of about 60 miles (100 kilometres) during its closest approach. The spaceship will start its engines in order to reach a record-breaking deep retrograde orbit (DRO) of 40,000 miles beyond the Moon for a spacecraft designed to carry people.

One of the main goals of the journey, which is anticipated to last about six weeks, is to test the heat shield of the capsule, the largest one ever built at 16 feet in diameter.

The heat shield will have to endure speeds of 25,000 miles per hour and temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) on its return to Earth's atmosphere, which is nearly half as hot as the Sun.

The first Moon expeditions were given the name Apollo in honour of the Greek god Apollo's twin sister, Artemis.

The Artemis missions will see the first person of colour and the first woman set foot on the lunar surface, in contrast to the Apollo missions, which between 1969 and 1972 only sent white men to the Moon.

Blackwell-Thompson, NASA's first female launch director, will appropriately give the final "okay" for takeoff on Saturday.

After years of setbacks and cost overruns, the US space agency will feel a great deal of relief if the Artemis 1 mission is a success.

According to a government analysis, the programme will cost $93 billion by 2025, with the first four launches alone costing an astounding $4.1 billion each.

With the Artemis 2 mission, astronauts will visit the Moon without touching down.

At the earliest, the crew of Artemis 3 will touch down on the Moon in 2025, with subsequent missions planning a lunar space station and a permanent presence there.

According to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, a multi-year crewed mission to Mars aboard Orion could be attempted by the end of the 2030s.

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