Artemis 1: the first step towards humanity's return to the Moon

[UM-Bot]

Later this year, NASA's Artemis 1 mission will take us one small step towards a return to the lunar surface.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/354408/artemis-1-the-first-step-towards-humanitys-return-to-the-moon

[Jon the frog]

Most important part is to nail it after so many delays. It needs to work ! Crossing fingers 1

[Eldorado]

The first moonbound rocket and spacecraft of NASA's Artemis program are expected to do a "wet dress rehearsal" on the launch pad in February, the agency said.

MSN

[+Hammerclaw]

By the time it launches, Starship will have made it obsolete.

[Jon the frog]

Delayed again... maybe this spring. At this points rats will have time to gnaw wires and rubber seals, woodpeckers will do nest in the main fuel tank insulation like on the space shuttles.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Jon the frog

[Still Waters]

16 hours ago, Jon the frog said:

Delayed again... maybe this spring. At this points rats will have time to gnaw wires and rubber seals, woodpeckers will do nest in the main fuel tank insulation like on the space shuttles.

I was just about to post this.

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-uncrewed-artemis-mission-moon.html

[AnthonyS]

Nice.

[Still Waters]

Latest:

NASA rules out April for Artemis I launch, could target May

NASA mission managers updated Artemis I progress ahead of the March rollout of the massive Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B for what the agency calls a wet dress rehearsal.

While it's targeting March 16 at 6 p.m. for the 322-foot-tall rocket to make the 4.2-mile journey to the pad, the agency will need a month or more for testing and a rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building before NASA signs off on a launch attempt. So an April launch window has been taken off the board.

"April is not a possibility. We're still evaluating the tail end of May," said Tom Whitmeyer, NASA's deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development. "But I want to be really careful once again, being straightforward with you. You know, we really need to get through this next few weeks here, see how we're doing."

The next possible windows for launch are from May 7-21, June 6-16 and June 29-July 12.

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-nasa-april-artemis.html

[Still Waters]

Your name can fly around the moon on NASA's Artemis 1 mission

You can send your name on a trip around the moon with just a few clicks of your keyboard.

NASA is inviting people to put their names on a flash drive that will launch on the agency's Artemis 1 mission, which will send an uncrewed Orion capsule around the moon and back a few months from now.

https://www.space.com/fly-name-around-moon-nasa-artemis-1-mission

Coming aboard in this manner is easy and free; just click the "get boarding pass" button at this NASA page.

https://www.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/

[Still Waters]

NASA’s Gigantic Crawler on the Move As Rollout of Mega Moon Rocket Inches Closer

Yesterday, engineers and technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida drove Crawler Transporter-2, which will carry NASA’s Moon rocket to the launch pad, to the doors of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Soon, the 6.6-million-pound crawler will go inside the VAB and slide under the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft placed on the Mobile Launcher. Technicians will finish up preparations to transport the rocket traveling at a top speed of 1 mph to Launch Complex 39B for a wet dress rehearsal test ahead of the Artemis I launch.

NASA will hold a media teleconference on Monday, March 14 to discuss the upcoming debut of the agency’s Mega Moon rocket and integrated spacecraft for the uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission.

Roll out of the integrated Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is slated for Thursday, March 17.

https://scitechdaily.com/nasa-gigantic-crawler-on-the-move-as-rollout-of-mega-moon-rocket-inches-closer/

[+Desertrat56]

NASA Atemis 1 moon megarocket rools out to the lalunch pad today

https://www.space.com/artemis-1-moon-megarocket-rollout-webcast?utm_source=notification

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — The first mission in NASA's Artemis moon program is set to roll out to the launch pad today (March 17). 

More than 50 years after NASA landed the first humans on the moon with Apollo 11, the agency is gearing up to launch its next human lunar missions as part of the Artemis program. And the program's first mission, Artemis 1, will take a big step toward launch today, when the mission's rocket and spacecraft will roll out to the launch pad. 

Ahead of the Artemis 1 launch, which is expected no sooner than May, NASA is rolling its Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion spacecraft on the giant crawler-transporter 2 (CT-2) to Pad 39B at the agency's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) here on Florida's Space Coast. 

[Waspie_Dwarf]

On 1/21/2022 at 5:34 AM, Hammerclaw said:

By the time it launches, Starship will have made it obsolete.

Nope, Starship will take many test flights until it is operational, SLS/Orion will, if all goes well, be operational after it's first test flight.

NASA and SpaceX work very differently. SpaceX launches expecting failure. It then fixes whatever failed and launches again. It may take many launches before success.

NASA, on the otherhand, test and test multiple times to ensure that their vehicles should work first time. Starship and Artemis I may both be sitting on the pad awaiting there first launches later this year but NASA expects their mission to succeed, SpaceX expects theirs to fail.

There is also a huge problem with Starship for crewed flights... it doesn't have a launch escape system. NASA found out the hard way, with Challenger and Columbia that isn't necessarily a great idea.

[+Hammerclaw]

3 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Nope, Starship will take many test flights until it is operational, SLS/Orion will, if all goes well, be operational after it's first test flight.

NASA and SpaceX work very differently. SpaceX launches expecting failure. It then fixes whatever failed and launches again. It may take many launches before success.

NASA, on the otherhand, test and test multiple times to ensure that their vehicles should work first time. Starship and Artemis I may both be sitting on the pad awaiting there first launches later this year but NASA expects their mission to succeed, SpaceX expects theirs to fail.

There is also a huge problem with Starship for crewed flights... it doesn't have a launch escape system. NASA found out the hard way, with Challenger and Columbia that isn't necessarily a great idea.

It doesn't have one, yet. Besides, if it's going to fly all the way to the moon and land, it's doesn't even need Artemis. NASA's way is obsolete--even Russia has a better system. Boeing is doing it NASA's way and neither has put a man in orbit. Space can't be subject to the whim of politicians, anymore, nor can craft be built, efficiently and economically, by egalitarian government committee. SpaceX is an investment in the future, whereas NASA is a taxpayer funded charity that squanders billions.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Hammerclaw

[Jon the frog]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/04/world/nasa-artemis-rehearsal-second-attempt-scrubbed-scn/index.html

Again scrubbed... fudge.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Jon the frog

[Still Waters]

Fuel leak thwarts NASA's dress rehearsal for moon rocket

NASA's latest attempt to fuel its huge moon rocket for a countdown test was thwarted Thursday by a hazardous hydrogen leak, the latest in a series of vexing equipment trouble.

The launch team had just begun loading fuel into the core stage of the rocket when the leak cropped up. This was NASA's third shot at a dress rehearsal, a required step ahead of a test flight to the moon.

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-fuel-leak-thwarts-nasa-rehearsal.html

[Still Waters]

NASA targets June 5 for redo of Artemis moon rocket dress rehearsal

NASA discovered a bevy of headaches in its first three tries to run through a dress rehearsal countdown of the Artemis I moon rocket at Kennedy Space Center earlier this year. Now it's ready for attempt No. 4.

The agency is targeting a call-to-stations on Sunday, June 5, with a start of rollout at midnight, June 6, for the 4.4-mile, 11-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building back to Launch Pad 39-B.

https://phys.org/news/2022-05-nasa-june-redo-artemis-moon.html

[Still Waters]

NASA's new Moon rocket to launch as soon as August 29

Mark your calendars: NASA's Artemis program to return to the Moon could launch its first uncrewed test flight as soon as August 29, the agency said Wednesday.

Artemis-1 is the first in a series of missions as the United States seeks to return humans to the Moon, build a sustained presence there, and use the lessons gained to plan a trip to Mars sometime in the 2030s.

NASA associate administrator Jim Free told reporters the first window of possible launch dates for the giant Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion crew capsule were August 29, September 2, and September 5.

https://phys.org/news/2022-07-nasa-moon-rocket-august.html

[Jon the frog]

On 7/20/2022 at 4:04 PM, Still Waters said:

NASA's new Moon rocket to launch as soon as August 29

Mark your calendars: NASA's Artemis program to return to the Moon could launch its first uncrewed test flight as soon as August 29, the agency said Wednesday.

Artemis-1 is the first in a series of missions as the United States seeks to return humans to the Moon, build a sustained presence there, and use the lessons gained to plan a trip to Mars sometime in the 2030s.

NASA associate administrator Jim Free told reporters the first window of possible launch dates for the giant Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion crew capsule were August 29, September 2, and September 5.

https://phys.org/news/2022-07-nasa-moon-rocket-august.html

We cannot use the word ''soon'' with all the delays but if they manage to launch it before the end of september it will be nice.

[Still Waters]

Artemis: Nasa readies giant Moon rocket for maiden flight

The American space agency Nasa has rolled out its giant new Moon rocket to prepare it for a maiden flight.

Known as the Space Launch System (SLS), the vehicle was moved to Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the expected lift-off on 29 August.

The debut outing is a test with no crew aboard, but future missions will send astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years.

The near 100m-tall (328ft) SLS rode an immense tractor to the pad.

It started moving from its assembly building at Kennedy just before 22:00 on Tuesday, local time, and had completed the 6.7km (4.2 miles) journey by just after sunrise on Wednesday morning.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62563720

[Still Waters]

Scheduled for 29 Aug 2022

[Still Waters]

Nasa Moon mission Artemis gets go ahead to launch – BBC News

 

[Jon the frog]

Common NASA launch it ! It needs to work !

[esoteric_toad]

Going to be a bad Monday. I work at a place in Cape Canaveral. Traffic is going to be a complete nightmare. When the falcon heavy launched it took me 2 hours to get home. I live 14 miles from work.....

[+and-then]

3 hours ago, esoteric_toad said:

Going to be a bad Monday. I work at a place in Cape Canaveral. Traffic is going to be a complete nightmare. When the falcon heavy launched it took me 2 hours to get home. I live 14 miles from work.....

I went down there for a night launch of Columbia and it was delayed twice and finally flew on the third attempt.  That night launch was worth every minute of the wait and the hours-long traffic jam to get away from the Space Center where we'd parked.  That memory is one of those "bucket list" things   It was right up there with a tandem skydive 

[esoteric_toad]

7 hours ago, and-then said:

I went down there for a night launch of Columbia and it was delayed twice and finally flew on the third attempt.  That night launch was worth every minute of the wait and the hours-long traffic jam to get away from the Space Center where we'd parked.  That memory is one of those "bucket list" things   It was right up there with a tandem skydive 

Having lived in the area my whole life (more than 5 decades) I have to remember that the launches, all of them, are a big deal for a lot of people. The folks visiting to see the launches bring in lots of money for the local businesses as well. I sometimes take it all for granted.