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The first American lunar mission was postponed to May or summer

The first launch under the Artemis-1 program will not take place before May. It is reported by Space.com.

During the Artemis-1 mission, the Americans plan to send an unmanned Orion spacecraft to fly around the moon on the SLS rocket under development. This was planned to be done in April, but now NASA says that this is not possible. In addition, a launch in May is also unlikely.

"We continue to evaluate the May launch window, but we recognize that a lot of work will need to be done to implement these plans," NASA spokesman Tom Whitmeyer said during an online press conference.

Among other things, it will be necessary to evaluate the future pre-launch dress rehearsal with rocket refueling. The rehearsal will take place on March 17 at Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the same location as the launch. The way to the site from the assembly building, where the rocket was connected to the ship, will take about 12 hours.

According to representatives of the agency, the rocket and the ship will be held at the site for about a month, of which the tests will take about two weeks. The SLS will then be returned to the assembly building for analysis of the test results.

The May launch window will run from the 7th to the 21st. To send the ship on a departure trajectory to the Moon, it is necessary to wait for the moment when the earth satellite will be in the correct position. If the rocket is not ready in May, the next windows open June 6-16 and June 29-July 12.

The SLS is a super-heavy rocket based on elements of the Space Shuttle: its engines, tank and boosters. Initially, it was supposed to be ready by 2019, but these dates have been shifted many times.

The first American lunar mission was postponed to May or summer