For that to happen, the space agency will have to fix a hydrogen leak on the launch pad and also get special permission from the US Space Force, which oversees rocket launches from Florida. NASA is required to retest the batteries in the SLS rocket’s flight termination system, which destroys the rocket if it veers off course to prevent a threat to the public. This should happen every 25 days and September 23rd is outside of that window. The problem for NASA is that testing the batteries requires rolling the SLS up to the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB. That could add several days to the process, and SLS is only certified to make the trip from its hangar to the launch pad so many times, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger. “So if they went back to VAB this month and then back to the pad, they would only have one round trip,” Berger tweeted. All of this means that Artemis 1 mission managers would rather fix the propellant leak, pass a tank test, and blast off with the blessing of the Space Force without having to move the rocket at all. During a news conference Thursday, Jim Free, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems development, confirmed that the agency has requested a waiver from the Space Force that would allow SLS to remain in place. If the waiver is granted and the leak is fixed, the release could take place on the 23rd, with a fallback date of September 27th. The much-anticipated debut of the SLS, the Orion crew capsule and the first major mission of the Artemis program, was scrubbed twice last week, first on August 29 due to engine problems and then on Saturday due to a leak. The mission will see SLS send an uncrewed Orion on a weeks-long flight around the far side of the moon and back for high-speed re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, followed by a launch landing. Artemis 1 is designed to pave the way for the first crewed Orion mission in 2024 and eventually for the return of NASA astronauts to the surface of the moon and then to Mars in the 2030s.

This 3D printed Martian habitat could be your new home in space

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