The first Artemis mission is going to be launched.
An uncrewed test flight around the moon will be launched by the space agency next week. A two-hour window that opens at 8:33 a.m. will allow for the liftoff. The sun rises at 1233GMT.
The historic mission, the first of NASA's Artemis program that aims to return astronauts to the moon, will lift off from Pad 36B. It will be the first flight of the SLS megarocket, NASA's most powerful rocket ever, and a critical test of its new spaceship.
The associate administrator of NASA said at a press conference that they were going for launch. It has been a long time since this day.
The Artemis 1 moon mission has live updates.
On a mission to circle the moon and return to Earth, Artemis 1 will launch a megarocket and capsule. The test flight is supposed to be NASA's first mission back to the moon with a crew in almost 50 years. Since the agency retired its space shuttle fleet over a decade ago, this is the first new vehicle of its own.
The same launch pad used by the Apollo 10 mission to the moon in 1969 as well as Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions will be used for the Artemis 1 mission. After about a month, it will return to Earth.
It's assumed everything will work out with the flight. Things can go wrong, that's what NASA says.
NASA's Artemis 1 is the first flight of a new rocket and a new spaceship. It's incredibly difficult to do and carries inherent risk.
Photos explain NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission.
Mission managers said Monday that they intend to push the four people hard, going beyond the parameters the agency has set for crewed flights, to make sure the spaceship gets put through its paces.
The Artemis crewed flights NASA has planned are 10 days long. It will give NASA and the European Space Agency time to address any issues that may arise during the first crewed flight. 10 small cubesats will be deployed from the SLS during the flight to test new Artemis exploration technologies, as well as a mannequin and humanoid torsos covered with sensors to measure the effects of vibration and space radiation on the human body.
The vehicle is being stressed to get ready for crew.
NASA hopes to fly Artemis 2 in 24 years. Artemis 3 will be the first Artemis moon landing with a crew and will use a landers to fly astronauts to one of 13 candidate sites at the moon's south pole. It depends on how Artemis 1 turns out.
We are entranced by the moon.
There are three chances to launch Artemis 1 in the current flight window. The launch strategy is expected to be announced on Saturday after the launch readiness review meeting.
There is still some work to be done on the SLS rocket.
The SLS rocket has two final close-out tests to be completed, one on the twin solid rocket boosters and the other on the connections between the rocket and its platform. A critical test is needed to verify a fix to a leak spotted in a June fueling test. It can only be done on launch day.
"That is something that we're going to demonstrate in the end for the first time on the day of launch, and if we do not successfully demonstrate that we are not going to launch that day."
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