artemis 1

NASA rolled out its largest-ever rocket to a launch pad in Florida on Friday and will try to launch again 10 days from now. NASA rolled out its largest-ever rocket to a launch pad in Florida on Friday and will try again 10 days from now to blast off on a much-delayed uncrewed mission to the Moon. After two launch attempts were scrubbed this summer because of technical problems, the rocket returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building to protect it from Hurricane Ian. The US space agency used the time to carry out…

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket shortly after arriving at the Kennedy launch pad earlier today. Photo: NASA/Joel KowskyThe towering Space Launch System is back at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, following a nine-hour trek from the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building. The agency is targeting November 14 for the rocket’s first launch, an event that will kick off the Artemis 1 mission and NASA’s return to the Moon.Could this be it? Might this finally be the last time NASA has to cart the…

Artistic depiction of CAPSTONE in lunar orbit. Gif: NASA/Daniel RutterNASA’s CAPSTONE performed its fourth of six planned trajectory correction maneuvers on Thursday, October 27, setting the stage for the spacecraft’s arrival to an elliptical halo lunar orbit in less than two weeks. The 55-pound cubesat fired its propulsion system for 220 seconds during the planned maneuver, Advanced Space, the private company managing the mission for NASA, explained in an update. The mission’s fourth trajectory correction maneuver…

Artist’s depiction of an Artemis astronaut stepping onto the lunar surface. Illustration: NASAArtemis 4 may not happen for another five years, but this mission promises to be a good one. In addition to launching a modified SLS rocket and delivering two space station components to lunar orbit, NASA will also attempt to land a crew on the Moon for the second time this decade—a feat the space agency had previously said was not practicable.Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for Artemis Campaign Development at NASA,…

Lockheed Martin is already building vehicles for Artemis missions 3 to 5. Photo: Lockheed MartinNASA has requested three new spacecraft from Lockheed Martin, which the space agency needs to fly astronauts to the Moon as part of its upcoming and ambitious Artemis program. The company has already delivered two Orion spacecraftand is currently in the process of building three more for Artemis missions 3 through 5. The newly announced batch of Orion spacecraft is meant for Artemis 6 to 8, the company announced on Thursday.…

The Space Launch System prior to being rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building on September 26.Photo: NASAAfter two launch scrubs, an impromptu tanking test, and an awful hurricane, NASA is once again preparing for the inaugural launch of its Space Launch System. The new targeted launch date for the Artemis 1 mission is Monday, November 14, with a 69-minute launch window that opens at 12:07 a.m. ET, as NASA announced today in a blog post. In the event of a scrub, backup launch opportunities exist on Wednesday,…

SLS at the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. Image: NASAIan, the ninth named tropical storm of the current Atlantic hurricane season, has foiled NASA’s plan to launch the Artemis 1 mission on Tuesday September 27. As late as Friday afternoon, NASA officials were casually dismissing the Caribbean storm system, but the space agency has since smartly concluded that Tropical Ian, as the system is now called, is something to be concerned about. In a blog post published this morning, NASA said it’s “foregoing a launch…

NASA's historic uncrewed mission to the Moon is facing fresh difficulties. After technical problems derailed two launch attempts several weeks ago, a new liftoff of the Artemis 1 mission scheduled for Tuesday is now threatened by a storm gathering in the Caribbean.The storm, which has not yet been assigned a name, is currently located south of the Dominican Republic.But it is expected to grow into a hurricane in the coming days and could move north to Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Center, from which the rocket is set…

NASA said Wednesday it had successfully trialed the fuelling process for its new rocket, after technical issues a few weeks ago halted two attempts to get the behemoth off the ground and headed towards the Moon."All of the objectives that we set out to do we were able to accomplish today," said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director of the program called Artemis 1.The unmanned mission hopes to test the new 30-story SLS rocket as well as the unmanned Orion capsule that sits atop it, in preparation for future…

Engineers repairing the area where a liquid hydrogen leak was detected during the second attempted launch of SLS on September 3. This photo was taken on September 8 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo: NASAA demonstration to confirm a repaired hydrogen leak appears to have gone well, with NASA declaring Wednesday’s cryogenic tanking test a success. Engineers still need to review the results, but the space agency could be on track to perform its third launch attempt of its SLS megarocket in just six days—a mission…