NASA’s Artemis I moon rocket finally launches
NASA’s massive SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft kick off a series of missions to put humans back on the Moon.
The Artemis I flight test mission begins as NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft, launches from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Image Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber
After months of delays, fuel leaks, and hurricanes, NASA launched the world’s most powerful rocket from Kennedy Space Center just before 2 a.m. This uncrewed mission, dubbed Artemis I, is designed to test the massive rocket and technologies aboard the new Orion spacecraft.
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“We rise together, back to the Moon and beyond,” said NASA launch commentator Derrol Nail as the rocket lifted off.
Minutes after launch, the rocket boosters and core stage fell away, and Orion continued on what will be a 25-day mission around the Moon and back. The spacecraft will travel roughly 1.3 million miles, at one point coming within 62 miles of the lunar surface, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11.
Artemis I is the first mission in the Artemis program, which aims to put a crew on the Moon, including the first woman and person of color, and pave the way for eventual exploration of Mars.
To launch the Orion spacecraft, including a crew and payload in a single trip to the Moon, NASA and its collaborators designed the Space Launch System rocket. This SLS core stage alone stands 212 feet tall. In this first configuration, the rocket can produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust.
The mission will also test Orion’s large heat shield. NASA estimates that upon reentry the spacecraft will experience temperatures as high as 5,000 F, half as hot as the surface of the Sun.
"The heat shield actually has to withstand the fastest and hottest reentry we’ve ever seen in human spaceflight,” NASA astronaut Kayla Barron said in a pre-launch broadcast.
When Orion splashes down, the heat shield tiles will absorb seawater, and engineers will need to change them out for the next mission.
Orion is also equipped to test radiation exposure, one of the hazards Artemis crews will face on future missions. Orion’s sensors will measure radiation as the craft transits to and from the Moon. The spacecraft is carrying mannequins dressed in radiation protection vests, and upon its return, scientists will measure the vests’ radiation damage to better understand what Artemis crews will need to endure.
The next mission is Artemis II, which currently aims to send four astronauts to the Moon in 2024, more than 50 years after the Apollo program ended.
“Artemis is different than Apollo because we are returning to the Moon, but this time we are going to stay,” Barron said.
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