NASA is confident in tomorrow's Artemis I lunar mission, despite damage to the SLS rocket

Here's What We Know

The space agency rescheduled the launch from Nov. 14 to Nov. 16 because of storm Nicole. The rocket was not taken to the hangar, which would have effectively postponed the Artemis I mission indefinitely due to the expiration of key components.

The storm damaged the rain shield at one of the boosters and flooded the pad to the Orion spacecraft. Immediately thereafter, NASA experts said they would be able to fix all the problems by November 16. On the morning of November 15, NASA officially confirmed that the launch would not be delayed.

Now more is known about the damage. In particular, one of the biggest problems is a torn strip of insulation coating from Orion. The fear is that such damage could cause overheating during flight.

Nevertheless, the leaders of Artemis I came to the conclusion that in the absence of new threats rocket and spacecraft design will be ready for launch. Also noted that the mentioned damage is not included in the list of stop criteria for safety.

Once again, recall that the launch of SLS with the Orion spacecraft is scheduled for November 16. At 02:04 (EDT) or 23:04 (PDT) there will be a two-hour window. NASA will broadcast the lunar rocket launch on YouTube.

Source: space