It’s time for the third try. The launch of NASA’s new megarocket as part of the Artemis 1 mission back to the moon should finally take place Tuesday night in Florida.

The Artemis rocket is to carry the first woman and the first black person to the moon. Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/ND

The first flight of the SLS rocket, the most powerful in the world, is scheduled for Wednesday (16) at 01:04 local time (03:04 Brazil time) with a launch window of two hours.

The weather promises to help, with a 90% chance it will be favorable. “Our time will come and we hope it will be Wednesday,” mission leader Mike Sarafin said on Monday. He also praised the “persistence” of his crews after two failed takeoff attempts due to two hurricanes.

Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, this unmanned test flight, which will fly past the moon without landing on its surface, is intended to confirm whether the device is safe for future crew.

The same rocket is also expected to carry the first woman and the first black person to the moon. Although this is a night launch, around 100,000 people are expected to enjoy the spectacle, mostly from neighboring beaches.

Andrew Trombley, space enthusiast from St. Louis. Louis, Missouri is looking forward to a successful takeoff.

“I was very young on the Apollo missions, so… I wanted to be here in person,” he said. The launch attracted crowds of tourists and locals.

Kerry Warner, 59, an educator based in Florida, sees takeoff as “part of America and what America is.”

Complex refueling operations were scheduled for Tuesday afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center under the leadership of Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s first launch manager.

The orange rocket will be filled with 2.7 million liters of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. In the northern summer, due to a hydrogen leak, the second attempt was canceled at the last minute.

Since then, the procedures have been modified and successfully verified in trials.

The first cancellation was due to a faulty sensor.

NASA officials insist that these problems are normal for a new spacecraft that their teams will learn about.

– 25 day mission –

After technical problems, two Hurricanes threatened the missile in separate attempts.

The 98-meter-tall SLS rocket had to be returned to an assembly building a few kilometers away in late September to protect it from Hurricane Yan, delaying launch by several weeks.

Then, when he was already on the launch pad, less than a week ago he encountered the winds of Hurricane Nicole.

The storm damaged a thin layer of sealant on the top of the rocket, but NASA said the risk was minimal on Monday.

Overall, the program is several years behind schedule, and NASA needs to successfully complete a billion-dollar mission. If liftoff takes place on Wednesday, the mission will last a total of 25 and a half days, with a landing in the Pacific Ocean on December 11th.