NASA announces plans to launch moon rocket into orbit on Wednesday

NASA is on track for Wednesday’s scheduled launch of the New Moon rocket after determining that hurricane damage poses little additional risk to test flights.

Strong winds from Hurricane Nicole tore off a 10-foot (3-meter) section of caulk near the crew capsule on top of the rocket last Thursday. According to mission manager Mike Sarafin, the material was torn into smaller pieces rather than one large strip.

Sarafin told reporters on Monday night that he “can continue to fly comfortably” based on his experience flying with the material.

Liftoff is scheduled for early Wednesday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with test dummies rather than astronauts on board. This is the first test flight of the most powerful 322-foot (98-meter) rocket NASA has ever built, and will attempt to send the capsule into lunar orbit.

The nearly month-long, $4 billion mission has been aborted since August due to a fuel leak and Hurricane Ian, and the rocket was returned to its hangar for shelter at the end of September. The rocket remained on Nicole’s launch pad. Managers said they didn’t have enough time to move it after it became clear that the storm would be stronger than expected.

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On Monday night, Sarafin admitted there was a “minor” chance of the flexible, lightweight caulk peeling off during liftoff. He noted that the most likely places to be hit would be the particularly large and robust parts of the rocket, which would inflict minimal damage.

Engineers were unable to determine the cause of a dangerous hydrogen fuel leak during two late summer launch attempts. But the launch team is confident that slowing down the flow will relieve pressure on the delicate fuel line seals and keep leaks within acceptable limits, said deputy program manager Jeremy Parsons. says.

The space agency plans to send astronauts around the moon in 2024 and land a crew on the moon in 2025.

The last astronauts visited the moon in December 1972, ending the Apollo program.

Meanwhile, the microwave-sized NASA satellite arrived in a special lunar orbit on Sunday following a summer takeoff from New Zealand. This elongated orbit, which spans tens of thousands of miles (kilometers), is where the space agency plans to build a depot for lunar crews. A staging station, known as the Gateway, serves astronauts traveling to and from the lunar surface.

The satellite, called Capstone, will spend six months testing its navigation system in this orbit.

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