Moon mission set to blast off busy year for space travel
NASA, private firms test rockets and spacecrafts
In late 2022, NASA kicked off its Artemis campaign by flying the Orion spacecraft, without anyone on board, in a test flight around the moon. Now, it is aiming for the surface.
In the wee hours Monday morning, a spacecraft owned and operated by a commercial company and without anyone on board is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral on a mission that could result in a landing Feb. 23, marking the first American soft landing on the lunar surface in more than 50 years. If successful, it would also serve to kick-start a fleet of robotic missions NASA hopes to send to the moon in the coming years by working with private industry to eventually return astronauts there.
The next launch to the moon could come in mid-February, when another company, Intuitive Machines, is scheduled to launch its lander to the moon on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. On Friday, a spokesman for the company said it is targeting a landing on Feb. 22 or before, which, if successful, would beat Astrobotic by a day and make Intuitive Machines the first commercial entity to land on the moon.
Monday's launch of the Astrobotic spacecraft would mark another potentially important milestone, the first flight of a long-awaited new rocket designed by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The Pentagon is eager to use the rocket, dubbed Vulcan, to launch national security missions, but first ULA needs to successfully complete two certification missions before it would be allowed to launch satellites for the Defense Department.
Monday’s launch, scheduled for 2:18 a.m. EST, is also a big moment for Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Jeff Bezos. Two BE-4 engines manufactured by Blue Origin will power the first stage of ULA’s Vulcan rocket in their first flight. Bezos and ULA’s CEO, Tory Bruno, first announced the engine deal in 2014 after ULA, which had been using Russian engines, was forced by Congress to find a domestic supplier. But the engines took much longer to develop than initially anticipated, forcing a delay in the debut of Vulcan.
Blue Origin also intends to fly its New Glenn rocket for the first time this year. It is powered by seven BE-4 engines.
The missions come as NASA is working toward the second flight of Orion around the moon, this time with four people on board: NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Currently, the flight, a 10-day mission around the moon known as Artemis II, is scheduled for late this year. But that could slip into 2025, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in an interview, as engineers continue to study how the capsule’s heat shield performed during its first flight to the moon. While there was still plenty of margin, NASA officials said, more of the heat shield burned off during reentry than had been anticipated.
“At some point all these technical geniuses are going to come together and make a decision,” Nelson said. “I’m very optimistic that they will have the heat shield with the integrity they want.”
Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to test its Starship spacecraft, the vehicle NASA has selected to land astronauts on the moon for the first two human landings under Artemis.