Photo: NASA
Back in the early days of December last year, we stumbled upon the countdown timer for the Artemis I Moon mission. The thing has been chipping away at weeks, hours, and seconds ever since, and at the time of writing, it shows just a little over 15 days left until liftoff.
That would put the launch sometime in the weekend of February 12, but as we’ve already seen, the American space agency is only planning to roll out the Space Launch System rocket onto Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center at about the same time.
More importantly, the Spaceflight Now portal lists the Artemis I mission as ready to go no earlier than March 20, meaning the timer, which granted, is for public use, and not some internal, official thing, is completely wrong, and NASA doesn’t show any intention of fixing it.
For what is worth, what’s important is that the mission will happen, and with it, the doors to humanity’s second lunar exploration program will open wide.
Artemis I is an integrated, uncrewed flight meant to validate both the Space Launch System super-heavy-lift launch vehicle and the Orion capsule that will actually support astronauts in their journey to the Moon.
The mission is to fly the Orion within 60 nautical miles from the surface of the Moon, allowing for an orbital insertion that should see it circling the rock one and a half times, moving then at a distance of 38,000 nautical miles. It’s going to be quite a long mission, much longer than Apollo, with NASA saying it could last between 26 and 42 days.
If successful, the flight will be followed by the crewed Artemis II, which will not land people on the Moon, but will take them farthest from Earth humans have ever been, 4,600 miles (7,400 km) beyond the far side of the Moon.
It is only Artemis III that will put human boots on the Moon, this time belonging to both a man and a woman.
More importantly, the Spaceflight Now portal lists the Artemis I mission as ready to go no earlier than March 20, meaning the timer, which granted, is for public use, and not some internal, official thing, is completely wrong, and NASA doesn’t show any intention of fixing it.
For what is worth, what’s important is that the mission will happen, and with it, the doors to humanity’s second lunar exploration program will open wide.
Artemis I is an integrated, uncrewed flight meant to validate both the Space Launch System super-heavy-lift launch vehicle and the Orion capsule that will actually support astronauts in their journey to the Moon.
The mission is to fly the Orion within 60 nautical miles from the surface of the Moon, allowing for an orbital insertion that should see it circling the rock one and a half times, moving then at a distance of 38,000 nautical miles. It’s going to be quite a long mission, much longer than Apollo, with NASA saying it could last between 26 and 42 days.
If successful, the flight will be followed by the crewed Artemis II, which will not land people on the Moon, but will take them farthest from Earth humans have ever been, 4,600 miles (7,400 km) beyond the far side of the Moon.
It is only Artemis III that will put human boots on the Moon, this time belonging to both a man and a woman.
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