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NASA to Make Second Attempt at Debut Moon Rocket Launch on Saturday

NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), with the Orion crew capsule perched on top, stands on launch complex 39B one day after an engine-cooling problem forced NASA to delay the debut test launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, August 30, 2022. (Reuters)
NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), with the Orion crew capsule perched on top, stands on launch complex 39B one day after an engine-cooling problem forced NASA to delay the debut test launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, August 30, 2022. (Reuters)
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NASA to Make Second Attempt at Debut Moon Rocket Launch on Saturday

NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), with the Orion crew capsule perched on top, stands on launch complex 39B one day after an engine-cooling problem forced NASA to delay the debut test launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, August 30, 2022. (Reuters)
NASA's next-generation moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), with the Orion crew capsule perched on top, stands on launch complex 39B one day after an engine-cooling problem forced NASA to delay the debut test launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, August 30, 2022. (Reuters)

NASA aims to make a second attempt to launch its giant next-generation moon rocket on Saturday, Sept. 3, five days after a pair of technical issues foiled an initial try at getting the spacecraft off the ground for the first time, agency officials said on Tuesday.

But prospects for success on Saturday appeared clouded by weather reports predicting just a 40% chance of favorable conditions that day, while the US space agency acknowledged some outstanding technical issues remain to be solved.

At a media briefing a day after Monday's first countdown ended with the flight scrubbed, NASA officials said Monday's experience was useful in trouble-shooting some problems and that additional difficulties could be worked through in the midst of a second launch try.

In that way, the launch exercise was serving essentially as a real-time dress rehearsal that hopefully would conclude with an actual, successful lift-off.

For now, NASA officials said, plans call for keeping the 32-story-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and its Orion astronaut capsule on its launch pad to avoid having to roll the massive spacecraft back into its assembly building for a more extensive round of tests and repairs.

If all goes as hoped, the SLS will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday afternoon, during a two-hour launch window that opens at 2:17 p.m., sending the Orion on an uncrewed, six-week test flight around the moon and back.

The long-awaited voyage would kick off NASA's moon-to-Mars Artemis program, the successor to the Apollo lunar project of the 1960s and '70s, before US human spaceflight efforts shifted to low-Earth orbit with space shuttles and the International Space Station.

NASA's initial Artemis I launch attempt on Monday ended after data showed that one of the rocket's main-stage engines failed to reach the proper pre-launch temperature required for ignition, forcing a halt to the countdown and a postponement.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, mission managers said they believe a faulty sensor in the rocket's engine section was the culprit for the engine cooling issue.

As a remedy for Saturday's attempt, mission managers plan to begin that engine-cooling process roughly 30 minutes earlier in the launch countdown, NASA's Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said. But a full explanation for the faulty sensor requires more data analysis by engineers.

"The way the sensor is behaving doesn't line up with the physics of the situation," said John Honeycutt, NASA's SLS program manager.

The sensor was last checked and calibrated months ago in the rocket factory, Honeycutt said. Replacing the sensor would require rolling the rocket back to its assembly building, a process that could delay the mission for months.

The first voyage of the SLS-Orion, a mission dubbed Artemis I, aims to put the 5.75-million-pound vehicle through its paces in a rigorous demonstration flight pushing its design limits, before NASA deems it reliable enough to carry astronauts.

Named for the goddess who was Apollo's twin sister in ancient Greek mythology, Artemis seeks to return astronauts to the moon's surface as early as 2025, though many experts believe that time frame will likely slip by a few years.

The last humans to walk on the moon were the two-man descent team of Apollo 17 in 1972, following in the footsteps of 10 other astronauts during five earlier missions beginning with Apollo 11 in 1969.

Artemis also is enlisting commercial and international help to eventually establish a long-term lunar base as a stepping stone to even more ambitious human voyages to Mars, a goal NASA officials say would probably take until at least the late 2030s to achieve.

But NASA has many steps to take along the way, starting with getting the SLS-Orion vehicle into space.

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Varieties

Hospital Clowns Bring Joy to Young Ukrainian Cancer Patients Who Survived Russian Missile Attack

Tetiana Nosova, who goes by the clown name of Zhuzha, a volunteer from the "Bureau of Smiles and Support" plays a ukulele as she stands with Michael Bilyk, who is held by his mother Antonina Malyshko, and Kira Vertetska, 8, at Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Tetiana Nosova, who goes by the clown name of Zhuzha, a volunteer from the "Bureau of Smiles and Support" plays a ukulele as she stands with Michael Bilyk, who is held by his mother Antonina Malyshko, and Kira Vertetska, 8, at Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
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Hospital Clowns Bring Joy to Young Ukrainian Cancer Patients Who Survived Russian Missile Attack

Tetiana Nosova, who goes by the clown name of Zhuzha, a volunteer from the "Bureau of Smiles and Support" plays a ukulele as she stands with Michael Bilyk, who is held by his mother Antonina Malyshko, and Kira Vertetska, 8, at Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Tetiana Nosova, who goes by the clown name of Zhuzha, a volunteer from the "Bureau of Smiles and Support" plays a ukulele as she stands with Michael Bilyk, who is held by his mother Antonina Malyshko, and Kira Vertetska, 8, at Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)

Their costumes are put on with surgical precision: Floppy hats, foam noses, bright clothes, and a ukulele with multicolored nylon strings.
Moments later, in a beige hospital ward normally filled with the beeping sounds of medical machinery, there are bursts of giggles and silly singing.
As Ukraine´s medical facilities come under pressure from intensifying attacks in the war against Russia's full-scale invasion, volunteer hospital clowns are duck-footing their way in to provide some badly needed moments of joy for hospitalized children.
The "Bureau of Smiles and Support" (BUP) is a hospital clowning initiative established in 2023 by Olha Bulkina, 35, and Maryna Berdar, 39, who already had more than five years of hospital clowning experience between them. "Our mission is to let childhood continue regardless of the circumstances," Bulkina, told The Associated Press.
BUP took on new significance following a Russian missile strike on Okhmatdyt Children´s Hospital in Kyiv in July. The attack on Ukraine´s largest pediatric facility forced the evacuation of dozens of young patients, including those with cancer, to other hospitals in the capital - and the clowns did not stand aside.
Together with first responders, Berdar and Bulkina helped with clearing the rubble after the attack and attended to the children who were relocated to other medical facilities. But even for them, the real heroes there were young patients.
"When the children were evacuated from Okhmatdyt after the missile attack, many of them were in extremely difficult medical conditions, but even in this situation they tried to support the adults," said Berdar, recalling the events after the strike.
The hospital clowns, who use traditional clown noses and bright costumes, are now visiting multiple hospitals in the Ukrainian capital region, including the National Cancer Institute, where patient numbers have surged after the Okhmatdyt attack.
Tetiana Nosova, 22, and Vladyslava Kulinich, 22, are volunteer hospital clowns who go by Zhuzha and Lala and joined BUP more than a year ago. For them, hospital clowning is as challenging as it is rewarding.
"I volunteer so that children don´t think about their illness, even for a short moment, so that laughter replaces tears, and joy replaces fear, especially during medical procedures," Kulinich said. In her practice, she stays together with children, sharing all their feelings, whether they are fear, pain, or joy.
For Nosova, the process itself is what made her start clowning. "I am motivated by joy. I simply enjoy it. All my life I studied to be an actress, all my life I enjoyed making people laugh. That´s enough motivation for me," she said.
In a city grappling with nightly air raid alerts and power outages, overworked doctors say the presence of the volunteers brings a much-needed distraction, often helping children who had been undergoing painful medical treatment to feel happy again.
"Clowns play a very important role in the treatment of children. They help distract the children, they help them forget about the pain, they help them not pay attention to the nurses or doctors who come to treat them," Valentyna Mariash, a senior nurse on the Okhmatdyt cancer ward, told AP.
The July attack complicated treatment plans for many families. Daria Vertetska, 34, was in Okhmatdyt with her 7-year-old daughter, Kira, when the missile exploded just outside their ward. Kira, who was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma of the nasopharynx, was asleep, medicated with morphine.
"It saved her that she was covered with a blanket during the strike, but still, her head, legs, and arms were cut with small glass shards," said Vertetska. She and Kira returned to Okhmatdyt in less than a week after the attack.
ot all the children returned to the hospital. Some stayed in the medical facilities where they had been evacuated, while others were moved to apartments paid for by charity organizations and located in the hospital´s vicinity.
Despite hospital clown initiatives like BUP across Ukraine, the need for their work grows exponentially. "When I see how our work is needed in the large children´s hospitals located in Kyiv, I can only imagine what a great need there is in regional and district hospitals, where such (clown) activity, as for example in Okhmatdyt, to be honest, simply does not exist," Berdar said.
The World Health Organization, earlier this month, warned that the country faces a deepening public health crisis, largely due to devastating missile and drone strikes on the country´s electricity system as well as hospital infrastructure.
Since the start of Russia´s full-scale invasion in February 2022, WHO has recorded nearly 2,000 attacks on Ukraine´s health care facilities and says they are having a severe impact.
Children are among the most vulnerable, but a mental health crisis affects the whole country. It means the clowns´ work has won broad support from medical professionals.
Parents are simply happy to see a smile return to their children´s faces.
"With clowns, children learn to joke, they play with soap bubbles, their mood lifts. Today, Kira saw clowns playing the ukulele, now she wants one, too," said her mother, Daria.