11/10/2022 – Ephemeris – Artemis I launch scheduled for next week

This is Ephemeris for Thursday, November 10th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 46 minutes, setting at 5:19, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:34. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 6:32 this evening.

As I’m writing and recording this last Sunday, the Artemis I launch to send the Orion spacecraft, without crew, around the Moon is scheduled for Monday the 14th. However, there is a developing tropical storm (Now named Hurricane Nicole) that is expected to strengthen and hit Florida about now actually, or maybe tomorrow or Saturday. (It’s today!) NASA has two weeks to launch this lunar month, the 14th through the 27th, with three embedded dates in there that they cannot launch because Orion’s solar panels will be in Earth’s shadow too long during the journey. It will really mess up the schedule if NASA has to roll the spacecraft back to the Vertical Assembly Building again, as they did for Hurricane Ian. (They did not roll it back.) Here’s hoping all goes well.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). They may be different for your location.

(Comments in parentheses were added last night as is the addendum, and were not part of the broadcast)

Addendum

According to the National Hurricane Center, the eye of Hurricane Nicole will pass south of Cape Canaveral by a fair distance and shouldn’t receive hurricane force winds, but should receive 2-4 inches of rain. It will delay the launch until at least the 16th.

Block 1 Space Launch System with Orion Capsule. Credit NASA.

Artemis I November launch calendar. Dates in green are possible launch dates. I’m not sure, but red dates are also forbidden because the Orion Capsule will experience more than 90 minutes in shadow at a time. It’s powered by solar panels. Light green dates allow a long mission of 1 1/2 orbits of the Moon in the distant retrograde orbit (DRO). The dark green dates can only have 1/2 a DRO. Source: NASA.