Four astronauts – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen – will embark on a 10-day journey around the dark side of the Moon and back to Earth, which will prepare the ground for a future moon landing, the BBC reports.
The launch date was set after a successful “dress rehearsal” at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, during which the rocket was fueled and put through a simulated countdown. The first attempt in February was aborted due to a hydrogen leak, but the technical problems have since been fixed.
The astronauts will fly on the 98-meter-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which first flew in 2022 without a crew. The crew will be housed in the Orion capsule, a space the size of a minibus, where they will live and work during the mission.
After a day in Earth’s orbit, if all systems are in order, it will head for the Moon. The journey takes about four days, and the spacecraft will pass 6,500 to 9,500 kilometers above the surface of the Moon. The return to Earth will end with a descent into the Pacific Ocean.
(Vijesti.ba)
