Engineers used a 30-ton crane to lift NASA’s Orion spacecraft on Friday, June 28, 2024.
This will be NASA’s first spacecraft to launch to the moon, carrying four astronauts to orbit Earth’s natural satellite for the first time since 1972.
The Orion spacecraft, which will be used for NASA’s Artemis 2 mission to orbit the moon, underwent an inspection last week inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Inspection Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Artemis 2 will be a 10-day test flight scheduled to launch aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket in September 2026. It will be the first time that astronauts will travel into space aboard an SLS rocket, which has more than 2 million pounds of thrust, according to NASA.
Core Stage
An image of the 212-foot SLS core stage at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Published The stage was installed last month in two propellant tanks that hold a combined 733,000 gallons of liquid propellant and power four RS-25 engines at its base. The stage is scheduled to depart shortly on a barge for the Kennedy Space Center.
Artemis 2 will succeed Artemis 1, which reached the lunar surface in late 2022 but did not carry any astronauts on board.
The core stage is NASA’s … [+]
Solar Eclipse
Artemis 2 is planned as the first of three crewed missions to the Moon, carrying four astronauts to test Orion’s life support systems.
After lifting off from Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Orion will orbit Earth twice before entering a highly elliptical orbit. About 24 hours later, the crew will experience a brief solar eclipse by the moon, after which rocket scientists will perform a maneuver called lunar orbit insertion, which will take the spacecraft on a nonstop journey into lunar orbit.
None of the four-person crew will land on the moon’s surface on Artemis II, which will be a lunar flyby, similar to the 1968 Apollo 8 mission that first took humans out of Earth orbit, but the Orion spacecraft will travel 4,600 miles to the far side of the moon.
After returning to Earth, Orion is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
The Artemis 2 crew, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch, and Canadian … [+]
Crew preparation
Orion tests are conducted by NASA Announced Astronaut Andre Douglas will serve as the backup crew member for Artemis 2. He will train with the four crew members already selected for the mission: NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen. Hansen’s backup will be Jenny Gibbons.
Artemis 2 is the lead mission to Artemis 3 and is planned as the program’s second manned mission, marking the first manned moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
This image was taken on the first day of the Artemis I mission in 2022. … [+]
Walking on the Moon
Artemis 3 will send two astronauts aboard a SpaceX-provided lander to the moon’s surface, expected to land near Shackleton Crater, near the moon’s south pole. The astronauts have yet to be named, but NASA has said they plan to be the first women and people of color to land on the moon.
In May, Douglas and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins met four recent Moonwalk Simulation Artemis 3 will explore the moon-like San Francisco volcanic region in northern Arizona.
Artemis missions are planned for each year after 2030, with Artemis 5, 6, 7 or 8 also scheduled to send astronauts to the lunar surface.
May the clear skies and big eyes be with you.