A crowd the size of a major US city can watch NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket lift off this weekend.
Artemis 1 was due to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida’s Brevard County on Monday morning (August 29). According to the county officials (opens in new tab), 100,000 to 200,000 people gathered on the Space Coast to watch this attempt, which was scrapped due to a problem with one of Artemis 1’s first stage engines . Space launch system (SLS) rocket.
The mission team believes the problem is minor, involving a faulty temperature sensor, and plans to move forward with another takeoff attempt on Saturday (September 3) at 2:17 PM EDT (1817 GMT). This is right in the middle of the Labor Day weekend, which could allow many more people to see the unmanned launch firsthand.
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In fact, Brevard County officials are expecting a large crowd, perhaps double what they saw Monday, between 200,000 and 400,000 people. the Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday (opens in a new tab) (September 1). And other Space Coast officials agree with that estimate.
“We’re sure it will be more than many we had on Monday because it’s a four-ship day in port, a milestone launch, a weekend launch and a holiday weekend, some of the main reasons why visitors come here in droves. in a single day,” Meagan Happel, public relations manager and film curator for the Florida Space Coast Office of Tourism, told Space.com via email. “So, yes, we’re projecting possibly double our original estimate with how much interest there has been.”
For perspective: 400,000 people is approximately the population of New Orleans or Tampa. Many people see a rocket launch, but this is not just any mission. Artemis 1 is the first flight of the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) SLS, which is more powerful than the Saturn Vthe iconic rocket that launched the Apollo spacecraft to the moon half a century ago.
This weekend’s launch will also be NASA’s first Artemis programwhich aims to establish a permanent and sustainable human presence in the surroundings the moon in the late 2020s.
Artemis 1 will send an uncrewed Orion capsule to lunar orbit and back. The main goal is to show that SLS and Orion are ready to begin carrying astronauts, which they will begin doing on the 2024 Artemis 2 mission around the Moon, if all goes according to plan.
Space.com editor Brett Tingley contributed to this report. Mike Wall is the author of “Over there (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a new tab). follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or enabled Facebook (opens in a new tab).