NASA’s preliminary analysis concludes that the giant space launch system passed the initial tests with flying colors. The rocket and Orion capsule are ready for the next mission, Artemis II, which will carry the crew into lunar orbit.
After numerous delays and huge cost overruns, some feared that the SLS (dubbed the “Mega Moon Rocket”) would never actually take off. But the November launch went (mostly) without a hitch, as did his 25-day mission with the unmanned Orion capsule.
Its success was evident, but it was not an all-or-nothing case. A NASA team had to analyze a large amount of data to confirm that Artemis I was unsuccessful despite serious problems. Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The team is still working on several terabytes of raw data, but the agency has declared its mission sufficient to support its sequel.
“Preliminary post-flight data, building on evaluations conducted shortly after launch, show that all SLS systems are performing exceptionally well and that the design is ready to support manned flight of Artemis II. ,” NASA wrote in a news post.
Emphasizing this point, SLS Program Manager John Honeycutt is quoted as saying:
The correlation between Artemis I’s actual flight performance and predicted performance was excellent. Building and launching a rocket successfully requires engineering and technology. An analysis of the SLS rocket’s maiden flight puts NASA and its partners in a better position to enhance missions beyond Artemis II.
Key pressures, temperatures, and other values were all within 2% of predictions. No doubt the team is still working on narrowing that delta.
Artemis II’s manned mission apparently depended entirely on Artemis I’s success. This clearly shows that SLS and Orion have been good enough since launch. It’s a big step to say “yes, we’re moving forward with putting astronauts on this”, but of course there’s a lot more work to do before that can be done. didn’t go as planned, but confirming that the rocket worked as expected may help speed up the next part of NASA’s larger plan to return to the moon.
