Now that Artemis II is all wrapped up, NASA has begun its post-game performance analyses of all the systems that worked together to get four astronauts safely to the moon and back earlier this month. In addition to taking humans farther than ever before, Artemis II served as a crucial test flight for upcoming crewed missions that are planned for as soon as 2027 and 2028, the latter being NASA's ambitious target for landing astronauts on the lunar surface. So far, the Orion spacecraft and the SLS rocket seem to have fared pretty well. NASA says its initial assessments of the crew capsule show its heat shield "performed as expected, with no unusual conditions identified," and it didn't exhibit as much char loss as seen in the uncrewed Artemis I test. (Navy divers snappe [...]
We got to share in a rare moment of collective awe this week as four astronauts blasted off toward the moon, beginning a 10-day journey that will take them farther from Earth than any humans have trav [...]
It looks like a March launch is no longer in the cards for Artemis II, NASA's first crewed trip to the moon's vicinity since the final Apollo mission over 50 years ago. While preparations we [...]
NASA started making the final preparations for the Artemis 2 mission in early January, with the hopes of opening its launch window as soon as February 6. After issues showed up during the mission’s [...]