JOB VACANCY PT MACANANJAYA CEMERLANG 3 POSISI GAJI TINGGI

 “This is a big moment of truth for NASA, similar to a ‘return to flight’ situation following a disaster,” says space historian Jordan Bimm of the University of Chicago. “Does NASA still have what it takes when it comes to human spaceflight? It’s been 11 years since NASA last launched a human-rated spacecraft, and this is an entirely new system, long in development.”

NASA officials have said that several off-ramps exist, should Orion encounter challenges that threaten its survival. But if, after its 25.5-day journey, the capsule safely splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, the stage is set fowhich could carry a four-person crew into lunar orbit as early as 2024. From there, as the Artemis program unfolds, the SLS and Orion could put the first woman and person of color on the moon’s surface, construct a space station in lunar orbit, establish a crewed lunar outpost, and possibly send humans far beyond Earth’s cratered celestial companion—perhaps even to Mars.

But the rationale behind the program, whic the end of 2025, is hazy at best. Why, experts wonder, are we returning humans to the lunar surface? Is it for the sake of science? Is it for the sake of national pride? Or to satisfy an innate human longing for new horizons? And how many times are we willing to go through the trouble of getting these missions off the ground?

iples of ‘science’ and ‘exploration’ is wonderful and noble,” Bimm says. But he adds, the Artemis program as envisioned “reminds me of [British explorer George] Mallory saying he climbed [Mount] Everest ‘because it’s there.’ Which was a b.s. nonanswer.”

According t NASA’s former deputy administrator and  the program’s pragmatic purpose is to secure the U.S.’s preeminence in spaceflight—although some of that seems to have been lost in the clamber to the moon. “To me, the goals are not destinations. The goals are what, as a nation, you want to achieve,” she says. “I think the U.S. has got a great leadership position in space, but we should be focusing on keeping that lead, widening that lead, instead of repeating stuff from the past.”Even before the first two scrubs, and the unfortunately timed hurricanes, the stakes were already sky-high for today’s launch, with SLS development costs to date along for the ride. Any rocket is inherently a delicately controlled bomb—with all of the accompanying risks—but of course, the SLS isn’t just any rocket. It is a heavy-lift system that, in future iterations, couldof crew and cargo to the moon and beyond. And in its present form, it—more than that of the iconic Apollo-era Saturn V—as it slips Earth’s gravitational grip. And perched on top of that beast is a multibillion-dollar spacecraft: Orion.

Ordinarily, the Orion capsule would be protected from any launch mishapstucked inside the pointy cap at the rocket’s apex—a set of three motors delivered by Northrop Grumman that can hurl the capsule away from a malfunctioning booster and do so with gusto: the main abort motor can propel Orion from zero to 400 miles an hour in just two seconds.