In March, I wrote about missions planned to launch to the Moon this year. With almost half of the year already past, let’s take a look at them again. Have they launched on time or not? And what about the missions planned to launch in the second half of the year?
NASA Capstone
Let’s start with the Capstone mission from NASA. I wrote mote about it, in a previous post. It should have launched on Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket on 3 May 2022. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and it hasn’t launched so far. The launch date slipped multiple times because the spacecraft and the rocket weren’t ready quite yet.
By 18 May 2022 the Capstone spacecraft has arrived at the launch site in New Zealand. Where it was integrated with Photon. Which is an upper stage as well as a spacecraft on its own. Its mission is to bring the Capstone satellite on its way to its orbit.
Currently, it is expected to launch not earlier than 25 June 2022. If you want to know more, take a look at my post about the Capstone mission or visit NASA’s website about the mission.
NASA Artemis 1
Not only the small rocket hasn’t launched to the Moon as planned, but also the big one. And by big rocket I mean NASA’s SLS rocket. It is still being prepared to launch the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon. It should have launched on 6 June 2022. Unfortunately, not everything did go as planned.
On 17 March 2022 the fully assembled SLS rolled out to the launchpad 39B. As SLS is the first rocket in over 50 years able to carry humans to the Moon, this event had numerous visitors. After arriving at launchpad 39B, engineers prepared it for the Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR). This is an almost full countdown. It includes all steps of a real countdown, like filling the rocket with propellant, except igniting the engines and lifting off.
On 3 April 2022 NASA went for the first run on the WDR. NASA scrubbed this test because of problems with the infrastructure at the pad. Subsequently, engineers from NASA resolved the issue and prepared for another attempt on 4 April 2022. Unfortunately, this run had new issues. First, engineers detected an issue with the supply of nitrogen to the launch pad and the rocket. They were unable to deliver a constant supply of nitrogen to the rocket. Second, ground teams had left a hydrogen value in the closed position when leaving the launch pad. The WDR was therefore scrubbed again.
Between the second attempt and the third attempt, engineers also ran into an issue with a nitrogen valve in the upper stage. After they did some maintains, which required reducing the pressure in tanks in the upper stage, they were unable to repressurize the tanks. Because this valve can only be accessed, while the vehicle is in the VAB, NASA decided to modify the WDR. It only includes chilling down the upper stage instead of filling it.
On 14 April 2022 NASA went for the next attempt of the WDR. And again couldn’t successfully complete it. They again had issues with the supply of nitrogen. After trying to work around it for some time, the test had to be scrubbed. The reason was a leak of liquid hydrogen. Because of the issues and the time it takes to fix them, NASA decided to roll back the SLS to the VAB, which they did on 25 April 2022.
Inside the VAB, engineers worked on the rocket and the launch platform. In addition, the supplier of nitrogen also worked on upgrading its infrastructure. On 6 June 2022 NASA rolled the SLS again out to launch pad 39B. They are currently expecting the next attempt for the WDR to happen not earlier than 21 June 2022.
To sum it up, NASA did multiple runs on the WDR and discovered multiple issues. But that is, why they do these tests. And wouldn’t it be even more frustrating, if they discover them on launch day? I want to see the rocket fly, not explode.
What about the other mission?
Let’s take a brief look at the other mission to the Moon. JAXA is now planning to launch its Slim mission not earlier than July 2022. KARI is still planning to launch in August. ISRO has pushed back the launch date of the Chandrayaan-3 mission to January 2023. I couldn’t find any update for Roscosmos Luna 25 mission. I don’t think it will launch in September 2022. Intuitive Machines has set 22 December 2022 as the launch date for its IM-1 mission. Astrobotics is still planning to launch the Peregrine One mission not earlier than October. Finally, ispace has set October as launch target for its Mission 1.
As you see, there’s still a lot to go. Unfortunately, we have also seen some missions slipping to the right. So let’s hope, that at least some of some can make it this year.