NASA Prepares for Another Artemis I Rocket Launch, Help From North Texas Companies

The countdown is once again on with NASA preparing for another attempt to launch its most powerful rocket yet as part of the Artemis mission.

The 32-story-tall rocket is one that the agency hopes will carry astronauts back to the moon in a few years. The rocket’s initial launch attempt from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida was scrubbed in August because of technical issues, followed by two hurricanes.

The latest two-hour window for the Artemis 1 mission launch is now early Wednesday morning beginning at 12:04 a.m. CST. The launch Wednesday will not have a crew on board.

“Nothing but excited. We are ready to kick this off,” NASA astronaut Christina Koch said. “We are excited to be the crew that gets to fulfill these missions. It’s a great honor to be in that role. It’s really what we’ve trained for.”

NASA has not launched a space vehicle designed to send astronauts to the moon since 1972. Several North Texas companies have contributed to the historic upcoming mission, including Sey Tec in North Richland Hills.

The company has been operating for 34 years, buying and re-distributing parts for aerospace and defense industries.

“Think of us as a big box warehouse for components that hold all of those aircraft and ground vehicles together,” Sey Tec General Manager Matthew West said. “We’re essential. Us and other subcontractors that work to support NASA are essential in terms of scalability to the program, the attention to detail.”

Many of the manufactured products being used for the Artemis missions were shipped to Sey Tec, which has a team handling paperwork and inspections for parts.

“They will check the parts for size and fit, calipers and sign the parts off,” West said.

From there, the parts are housed as inventory in the North Richland Hills warehouse to support various programs.

“They’ll pull the parts directly off the shelves. Bag them, tag them with a label. Then the parts will come back out,” West said.

Many eyes will be on the launch Wednesday morning, including Ken Ruffin.

“I’ll have my phone. I’ll have my laptop and hopefully, there will be some TV news coverage. So, I plan to have three screens all at the same time,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin serves as president of the National Space Society of North Texas. In August, he traveled to Florida to watch the launch before it was scrubbed.

“When there are delays like that, it’s not the perfect situation. But it’s better for there to be a delay than there is to be something negative,” he said. “The Artemis program is really much bigger than what most people probably realize.”

A successful launch for Artemis I will be a key milestone in the mission, with NASA’s future plans of putting crew members on the rocket and launching them to orbit the moon as part of Artemis II in 2024. The goal is to put crew members onto the surface of the moon in 2025, according to NASA.