Both were overseen by Garrett, their safety engineer, and all are employed by ERC, part of Jacobs' Test and Operations Support Contract at KSC. My heart was pumping."Ĭairns, also a cryogenic technician, had been a red team crew member for 37 years before he was called into action for the first time Wednesday to help fix the leak. "The rocket's alive – it's creaking, making venting noises, it's pretty scary. "We were very focused on what was happening up there," Annis, a cryogenic engineering technician, said during a post-launch interview on NASA TV. Without the red team – Trent Annis, Billy Cairns, and Chad Garrett – Artemis I would not have flown Wednesday. View Gallery: Artemis I rolls out to launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center The three technicians, called the "red team," moved in and tightened nuts around a hydrogen fill line and departed the pad without issue. NASA opted to do something rarely seen in spaceflight: send technicians into a blast danger area, or BDA, to fix hardware just feet away from a pressurized vehicle capable of holding 733,000 gallons of energy-dense propellants. Supercooled liquid hydrogen and oxygen are NASA's propellants of choice for SLS. Though nearly fully fueled, SLS could not proceed with liftoff without some kind of repair to a hydrogen top-off line down near the base of the rocket. Going into the count Tuesday night, all appeared to be moving along smoothly until a small hydrogen leak was detected. Officials said the soft, pliable material would not noticeably increase the loss-of-mission risk, which had previously been calculated at 1 in 125. Nicole caused some caulk-like material to be stripped away from Orion and raised questions about whether or not more could become dislodged in flight and strike other portions of the rocket. Just when NASA appeared to resolve the problems, hurricanes Ian and Nicole barreled through Florida, first causing the agency to roll the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to avoid Ian, then suffering minor damages to some of the Orion capsule. Managers tried in August and September, but had to stand down due to hardware issues at pad 39B – namely the loading of liquid hydrogen into the rocket's massive, Boeing-built core stage. There was no shortage of opportunities to launch Artemis I. View Gallery: Photos: NASA launches historic Artemis I mission from Kennedy Space Center The countdown leading to the Space Coast's 50th launch of the year, however, was a story in and of itself.
Artemis III will then attempt to put two people on the surface before 2030. If schedules hold, Artemis II will include a similar flight profile to Wednesday's launch but also send astronauts in the Orion capsule. The first step in returning our country to the moon and on to Mars."Īrtemis I is NASA's first demonstration flight under the program and, if all goes well, will make room for a follow-up mission sometime before 2025.
"But we are all part of something incredibly special: the first launch of Artemis. "You are part of a first that doesn't come along very often – once in a career, maybe," Blackwell-Thompson said. You have earned your place in the room, you have earned this moment, you have earned your place in history." "I want you to look around, look around at this team, and know that you have earned it. “It is not by chance that you are here today," Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA's Artemis launch director, told a packed Launch Control Center after liftoff. With help from the United Launch Alliance-built upper stage, Orion fired off toward the moon – known as the translunar injection – just after 3:30 a.m. Less than 20 minutes into flight, the Orion capsule secured atop the rocket began deploying its solar arrays, kicking off an uncrewed 26-day mission to lunar orbit. It marked SLS’ first launch under the umbrella of NASA's Artemis program and third attempt overall. EST, the multibillion-dollar Space Launch System's four main engines and two solid rocket boosters rumbled to life at Kennedy Space Center with a whopping 8.8 million pounds of thrust, making it the world's most powerful operational rocket. Please support it with a subscription here.Īfter several high-profile delays brought on by hardware and hurricanes, a towering rocket emblazoned with NASA logos blasted off from Florida on Wednesday, finally kicking off a monthlong mission to the moon that hearkens back to the Apollo days more than 50 years ago.Īt 1:47 a.m. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Space is important to us and that’s why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Watch Video: NASA makes history with Artemis I launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida
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