![]() ![]() ![]() NASA has unveiled 13 candidate landing regions. Unlike the Apollo missions, which landed near the moon’s equator, Artemis III will land near the moon’s south pole. Those astronauts will spend about 6.5 days exploring and doing research, and then Starship will ferry the crew back to lunar orbit, where the astronauts will return to Orion and head back to Earth. Two members of the crew will then use Starship to land on the moon’s surface near the lunar south pole. This four-astronaut mission will begin much like Artemis II, but when Orion reaches the moon, it will dock with a waiting Starship vehicle from SpaceX. The mission resembles the December 1968 flight of Apollo 8.Īrtemis III, the mission meant to return people to the lunar surface, will launch no sooner than 2025. ![]() During this 10-day mission, a crew of four will fly by the moon aboard Orion and then return to Earth. “This is now the Artemis generation.”Īrtemis II, slated for no sooner than May 2024, will be the program’s first crewed flight. “We're learning through the challenges, the accomplishments: Artemis I shows that we can do big things, things that unite people, things that benefit humanity, things like Apollo that inspire the world,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in an August 3 media briefing. This first mission will last four to six weeks, depending on when it launches, taking Orion into orbit around the moon and then back to Earth. The only piece that has flown in space before is Orion, which launched on another rocket in December 2014 to test its heat shields. Artemis I will be the first uncrewed flight test of the whole vehicle “stack”: Orion, the European Service Module, and the SLS rocket. The first mission, called Artemis I, is an uncrewed test launch that will fly as soon as November 16, with backup dates on November 19 and 25. What are the first missions of the Artemis program? Once Orion returns to Earth, the gumdrop-shaped capsule will use its heat shields to survive the blazing descent through Earth’s atmosphere and then deploy parachutes for an ocean splashdown. Starship, which SpaceX is currently testing, will then ferry the astronauts to and from the lunar surface. Orion can’t land on the moon itself, so when NASA makes its lunar landing attempt during Artemis III, it will transfer the crew from Orion to a modified version of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft while in lunar orbit. The rocket’s upper stage will detach from the core stage once it reaches space and fire its own engines to send Orion (with the European Service Module) on its way moonward. Combined, the rocket will generate 8.8 million pounds of thrust at launch, 15 percent more than the Apollo program’s Saturn V. Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight to the moon and back, will use refurbished engines that have each flown on at least three space shuttle missions.Įach SLS rocket will also use two massive solid-fuel boosters attached on either side of the core stage. ![]() The jumbo rocket’s first stage uses four RS-25 rocket engines, originally developed for the space shuttle program. Orion’s ride to the moon is the Space Launch System, or SLS: a 322-foot-tall rocket with a core stage that burns a mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Each Orion capsule will fly with a European Service Module, provided by the European Space Agency, that will carry solar panels, life support systems, fuel tanks, and the main engine needed to enter lunar orbit. What spacecraft are used in the Artemis program?ĭuring their missions, the Artemis crews will live aboard Orion, a capsule designed to keep a crew of four alive and healthy in deep space for up to 21 days. ![]()
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