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Space @ a glance

LIBRARY AND DOCUMENTATION DIVISION February 25, 2022

NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission, 1st flight of new megarocket, won't launch until
May
space.com – 25 Feb, 2022

NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission may end up It'll likely take about 12 hours for the huge
being a summertime affair. An April launch is vehicle to make the relatively short trek to the
no longer possible for Artemis 1, which will pad.
send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the
moon using a huge Space Launch System (SLS) The SLS-Orion stack will probably spend about
megarocket, agency officials said today (Feb. a month on Pad 39B, with roughly two weeks
24). And May could be difficult to hit as well. on either side of the wet dress rehearsal,
"We continue to evaluate the May window, agency officials said. The vehicle will then roll
but we're also recognizing that there's a lot of back to the VAB for further analysis and
work in front of us," Tom Whitmeyer, deputy processing. The May launch window runs from
associate administrator for exploration systems the 7th through the 21st, Whitmeyer said. If
development at NASA headquarters in Artemis 1 isn't ready to go by then, the next
Washington, said today during a virtual news opportunity comes from June 6 through June
conference. Some of that work will involve 16. And the next window after that runs from
analyzing data from the Artemis 1 "wet dress June 29 through July 12. These windows are
rehearsal," a crucial test that will take the SLS- limited for a variety of reasons, Whitmeyer
Orion stack through many of the milestones it said. He cited, among other factors,
will hit on launch day (liftoff excluded, of performance constraints on the SLS, the need
course). Like the launch, the wet dress to line the launch up properly with Earth's
rehearsal will take place on Pad 39B at rotation and the position of the moon, and the
NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. fact that the solar-powered Orion isn't
SLS and Orion are scheduled to roll out to the designed to fly through eclipses that last longer
pad from KSC's cavernous Vehicle Assembly than 90 minutes. Artemis 1 is a huge mission
Building (VAB) at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on for NASA and its Artemis program of crewed
March 17, agency officials announced today. lunar exploration, so the agency is taking its
Space @ aglance Library&DocumentationDivision,LPSC Page | 1
Space @ a glance
LIBRARY AND DOCUMENTATION DIVISION February 25, 2022

time to make sure everything is in order before Apollo era — is tentatively scheduled for 2024.
it lifts off. Artemis 1 will mark the first-ever Artemis 3 will put astronauts on the moon in
flight of the huge and powerful SLS and the 2025 or thereabouts, using a
second mission for Orion, which flew to Earth SpaceX Starship vehicle, if all goes according to
orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV plan. And that lunar touchdown isn't the
Heavy rocket in December 2014. If all goes well Artemis endpoint. The program aims to
during the roughly 26 days of Artemis 1, NASA establish a long-term, sustainable human
will start gearing up for Artemis 2, which will presence on and around the moon. The lessons
send astronauts on a journey around the and skills gained from doing so will aid NASA's
moon. That landmark flight — NASA's first next giant leap — putting astronauts on Mars,
crewed mission beyond Earth orbit since the which the agency aims to do in the 2030s.

Space @ aglance Library&DocumentationDivision,LPSC Page | 2

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