Tag: Artemis I
-
Artemis II returns to Earth after historic 10-day mission around the Moon
After 10 days, over 800,000 km traveled, and a historic flyby of the Moon, Artemis II returned to Earth on Friday evening. Orion CM-003 Integrity, which served as the home for the mission’s four-person crew since April 1, reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean before ultimately splashing down off the coast of San Diego,…
-
This is my third Orion launch, but it feels totally different
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.—This will be the third time I have observed NASA’s Orion spacecraft take flight. But with this one, for the first time, am I genuinely hopeful about the future of the space agency and its plans to build a station on the surface of the Moon. The two previous flights, in 2014…
-
NASA confirms “independent review” of Orion heat shield issue
NASA has asked a panel of outside experts to review the agency’s investigation into the unexpected loss of material from the heat shield of the Orion spacecraft on a test flight in 2022. Chunks of charred material cracked and chipped away from Orion’s heat shield during reentry at the end of the 25-day unpiloted Artemis…
-
Lockheed Martin, NASA working around the clock to finish Artemis II Orion assembly and hold 2024 launch date
The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission is nearing final assembly and testing at prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) production facility. After a final standalone test on the Orion crew module (CM), it is expected to be mated to the service module (SM) in mid-September. If there are no problems in…
-
EGS launch team applying first SLS launch lessons to future Artemis missions
The NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program is now working on collecting, analyzing, and applying lessons learned during the long Artemis I launch processing flow to streamline future launch campaigns, beginning with the launch of the first Artemis crew on the Artemis II mission in a couple of years. The first Space Launch System (SLS)…
-
EGS Integration Console engineers review Artemis I campaign
The NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program is continuing to review the experiences from the Artemis I launch campaign as teams plan and prepare for Artemis II in a couple of years. History suggested there would be a long ground campaign to the Space Launch System’s (SLS) first liftoff, and a series of issues —…
-
NASA´s William Hartwell updates on Artemis I and future ESMs
NASASpaceflight interviewed two speakers and subject matter experts about Orion, the European Service Module (ESM), Artemis I, and other space cooperations between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA as part of the Moon Media Day of ESA and Airbus. In the previously released interview, NASASpaceflight talked with the ESA Director of Human and Robotics…
-
Orion aces final in-flight test with nominal reentry and splashdown
The Orion spacecraft has reached the end of its flight on the Artemis I mission, with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja Coast near Guadalupe Island at 12:40 PM EST (17:40 UTC) on Sunday, Dec. 11. Final in-flight development test objectives were completed on Saturday, Dec. 10, and the fifth and penultimate…
-
RS-25 engine performance “perfect” on Artemis I debut launch
The four RS-25 engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne successfully propelled the Core Stage, Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System, and Orion/Service Module stack into its initial Earth orbit during the system’s debut launch on Nov. 16, 2022. The engines fired for a full duration of nearly eight and a half minutes, inserting the SLS stack into a 30…
-
Solid Rocket Boosters meet performance targets in first-look data review for Artemis I
The Artemis I launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from LC-39B at the Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 16, 2022, marked the first time in 11 years that the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) formerly used for the Space Shuttle program lit on a launch pad and hauled a spaceship out of Earth’s dense…