Artemis-1 back on Launchpad: Nasa aims for successful 3rd lunar launch with Artemis-1

Digital Desk: Nasa's Artemis-1 mission rocket has arrived to the launchpad after a nine-hour voyage from the Vehicle Assembly Building. On November 14, the Space Launch System (SLS) with the Orion spacecraft returned to the launch pad for a third attempt to reach the Moon. 

The Artemis-1 rocket is scheduled to launch on November 14 at 9:37 a.m., during a 69-minute window. The rocket will take out from launchpad 39 B at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. 

With the arrival on the pad, Nasa stated that teams will continue to work on configuring SLS and Orion for the forthcoming November 14 launch attempt.

On November 12, around 48 hours before the launch, the clock will start to count over, starting off the countdown. 

Engineers had rolled the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on September 26 ahead of Hurricane Ian, and after cancelling two previous launch attempts on August 29 and September 4 owing to a liquid hydrogen leak at an interface between the rocket and the mobile launcher. 

Teams successfully corrected the leak and demonstrated new tanking methods before rolling it back. Teams worked in the VAB to repair minor damage to the foam and cork on the thermal protection system and to replenish or replace batteries throughout the system.

While this is an unmanned launch with no humans on board, but it will carry an astronaut Commander Moonikin Campos who is aboard to collect acceleration and vibration data. 

Commander Moonikin Campos is an Orion vibration test manikin with a male body. During flight, the mannequin will sit in the commander's chair, wearing the same spacesuit as the Artemis astronauts would wear on their mission to the Moon. 

The mannequin was named after Arturo Campos, a significant figure in the safe return of Apollo 13 to Earth. However, the mannequin is not alone. It is one of three guests aboard Artemis-1. Nasa is also sending two female-bodied phantom human torsos dubbed Zohar and Helga by the Israeli Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), respectively.