Artemis 1

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

NASA adopted (during the previous administration) the goal of returning a human presence to our Moon for long-term research and exploration: the Artemis project.

A series of missions will get us there, and the first one is coming soon. After a successful fueling test of its SLS rocket last month, the window which has been targeted for Artemis 1 is August 23-September 6.

Without crew, this first mission will test how NASA's deep space exploration systems work together: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center.

Orion is the spacecraft designed for human crew. On this mission, it will fly 280,000 miles (thousands of miles beyond the moon) over a period of 4-6 weeks.

Artemis 1's mission manager says, “It will blaze a trail that people will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for that mission.”

 

from NASA