After four delays, two due to technical failures and another two due to meteorological phenomena, the mission was successfully launched on November 16. Artemis I, or so it seemed. This new advance by NASA, which will allow astronauts to be transported in 2024 thanks to its “sister” Artemis II, has registered 13 setbacks in the Orion capsule, half of them in the CubeSatsminiaturized satellites that are in charge of space research and that the mission will use for scientific purposes.
Artemis I is the first unmanned lunar mission that will transport humans to the moon again thanks to the Orion ship. If all goes well, the rocket will remain in orbit for an average of 25 days, eleven hours and 36 minutes, returning to Earth on December 11.
The US space agency published last Friday that there were several failures. One of the most important affected the ship’s navigation systemthat although it knows where it has to go through its orientation system based on the bright points of the stars, it has sent anomalous readings to NASA, which could affect the direction of the probe.
The another 12 anomalies They are “minor bugs” as reported. However, the one that worries the most is the one that affects the small CubeSats. All these “boxes of shoes” reached their orbits as planned, but five of them had “technical problems afterwards, have experienced intermittent communications or, in one case, we have not received a signal as planned,” explained the responsible for the Artemis I mission, mike seraph. The rest of them are in perfect condition and are “on the road to success.”
The person in charge of the mission also pointed out that several damages occurred during the launch. one of them was related to rocket doors that exploded during launch.
Scientists expected damage after liftoff and therefore “the team is proceeding with great caution to obtain the full status of the mobile launcher, and they are working to fix it,” Serafin said.
Despite all the damage Orion has sustained, the team announced that the launch and mission “they are exceeding expectations”.