artemis 1

The SLS rocket sits on top of the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center ahead of the Artemis 1 launch.Photo: NASANASA is going back to the Moon, but first the space agency needs to decide where it’s going to park. On Friday, it revealed 13 candidate landing regions near the Moon’s south pole for the upcoming Artemis 3 mission, which aims to land a man and a woman on the lunar surface.Each region is about 10 by 10 miles (15 by 15 kilometers), and they each contain multiple landing sites with a radius of around 328 feet (100 …

NASA’s old-school ‘worm’ logo is plastered across the SLS rocket alongside its modern logo and the European Space Agency logo.Photo: NASANASA’s most powerful rocket is ready to make its way to the launch pad before its inaugural launch as part of the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon. The space agency is rolling out the enormous Space Launch System (SLS) to Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday evening, and the historic kickoff to humanity’s return to the Moon will all be streamed live. We’ll have to wait a little…

The latest class of NASA astronauts was selected out of more than 12,000 applicants.Photo: NASADuring a news briefing at the Johnson Space Center on Friday, a NASA official revealed that all active NASA astronauts are eligible to take part in the Artemis Moon program, regardless of age. “The way I look at it, any one of our 42 active astronauts is eligible for an Artemis mission,” Reid Wiseman, chief astronaut at NASA, said on Friday, according to SpaceNews. “We want to assemble the right team for this mission.” This…

Spectators watch the Space Shuttle Atlantis blasting off on July 8, 2011. The launch was the 135th and final Space Shuttle launch for NASA. Photo: Phil Sandlin (AP)NASA’s SLS rocket is slated to launch for the first time in just three weeks, rumbling off the launch pad with 8.8 million pounds of thrust. There to see it take flight will be thousands upon thousands of spectators, as the Artemis era officially gets underway. The 322-foot-tall Space Launch System is the most powerful rocket that NASA has ever built, launching…

Orion atop SLS, with the target destination glowing in the background. Photo: NASASpeaking to reporters earlier today, NASA officials outlined three potential dates for the inaugural launch of the space agency’s Space Launch System (SLS), the earliest of which could happen on August 29. After years of delays, cost overruns, and technical hurdles, the Artemis 1 mission appears to be finally at hand. Yes, the first mission of the Artemis era involves the maiden voyage of NASA’s gigantic SLS rocket, but there’s more to the…

NASA said Friday it is now targeting February 2022 for the uncrewed lunar mission Artemis 1, the first step in America's plan to return humans to the Moon later this decade. The space agency had initially wanted to launch the test flight by the end of this year, with astronauts on the ground by 2024 on Artemis 3, but the timeline has slipped back.It achieved a major milestone Wednesday when it stacked the Orion crew capsule atop its Space Launch System megarocket, which now stands 322 feet (98 meters) tall inside the…

NASA has announced that it was now targeting to launch the Artemis 1, an uncrewed mission that will return the American space agency to the Moon after decades, in February 2022. The rescheduling of the launch has delayed the mission by at least three months as the ambitious programme was initially set to take off in November. The delay is mainly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hurricane Ida, and other factors. The launch period for Artemis 1 now runs from February 12 to February 27, said the agency in an…

NASA has again delayed its planned launch of the uncrewed lunar mission Artemis 1 by at least a month. The space agency had initially targeted the launch of the mission on February 12, 2022, but issues in the integrated testing programme have forced another schedule delay. The space agency has said it is now looking at launch opportunities in March and April. The Artemis programme aims to return astronauts to the Moon's surface later this decade for a sustainable presence in a bid to reach Mars in the 2030s.Artemis 1,…

While the Artemis I is yet to take off, NASA and its partners across the US are already working on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for the second Artemis launch, which will be the first crewed Artemis mission. NASA said the teams of scientists working on the SLS rocket have made “great progress” in building it for the second Artemis mission. The teams are also testing major parts of the Artemis missions which are in pipeline for launch after the first two, the space agency added.Artemis is one of the most ambitious…

NASA has again delayed the final prelaunch test of Artemis I, an uncrewed mission that will be the stepping stone for returning humans to the Moon after several decades. The wet dress rehearsal was previously scheduled for February and has now been postponed to mid-March. This could now delay the actual launch of Artemis I to April or May. The agency said this delay is a result of the additional time needed to complete “closeout activities” inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,…