Artemis – Spaceflight Now

NASA’s moon program mobile launcher rolls back to the launch pad for testing

August 16, 2023 Will Robinson-Smith

The launch tower supporting the first three Artemis missions was back on the move for the first time Wednesday after more than half a year of repairs and upgrades.

Artemis 2 crew meets Orion – Full press conversation

August 9, 2023 Spaceflight Now

On Aug. 8, 2023, the four-member crew of the Artemis 2 mission got their first opportunity as a group to get up close with the Orion crew module that will take them around the Moon and back. In this members-only video, hear the full remarks from the crew as they answered press questions in front of their ticket to space.

Artemis 2 astronauts get first look at their Orion moonship

August 8, 2023 William Harwood

NASA’s four Artemis 2 astronauts, getting their first look at the Orion capsule that will carry them around the moon next year, said seeing the hardware first hand and meeting the men and women building the spacecraft brought home the reality of their historic mission.

NASA awards Blue Origin $3.4 billion Artemis moon lander contract

May 19, 2023 William Harwood

Blue Origin, the rocket company owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, has won a $3.4 billion NASA contract to build an Artemis lunar lander that will provide a downstream alternative to the Starship variant already being developed by SpaceX, the agency announced Friday.

Artemis 2 commander chats with Spaceflight Now

April 3, 2023 Stephen Clark

Reid Wiseman, a veteran U.S. Navy test pilot and former chief of NASA’s astronaut corps, will lead the four-person crew assigned to the Artemis 2 mission to carry people to the vicinity of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. Wiseman says he views the crew’s job as making sure NASA’s Orion spacecraft is ready for more demanding missions later this decade to support moon landings and assembly of a space station called the Gateway in lunar orbit.

NASA names crew for first human mission to the moon in more than 50 years

April 3, 2023 Stephen Clark

NASA announced Monday that former U.S. Navy fighter pilots Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, veteran space station astronaut Christina Koch, and rookie Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will crew the Artemis 2 mission to fly around the far side of the moon as soon as late next year, a test flight that could carry the foursome farther from Earth than any humans in history.

NASA set to announce crew of Artemis 2 moon mission

April 2, 2023 Stephen Clark

NASA will unveil the four crew members Monday who will fly around the moon on the first piloted flight of the agency’s Orion deep space capsule on the Artemis 2 mission as soon as late next year.

Work begins to harvest Orion spacecraft hardware for Artemis 2 lunar flight

January 5, 2023 Stephen Clark

Fresh off the 1.4-million-mile Artemis 1 test flight around around the moon, NASA’s Orion spacecraft arrived Dec. 30 back at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where technicians will offload propellants and payloads, and begin removing internal hardware destined to fly back to the moon with astronauts on the next Orion crew capsule in 2024.

Artemis 1 back on Earth after near-flawless 25-day moon mission

December 11, 2022 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Orion spacecraft parachuted to a gentle splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Sunday west of Baja California, ending an unpiloted test flight to the moon that spanned 25-and-a-half days and 1.4 million miles, proving out a new rocket and capsule to carry astronauts back to Earth’s celestial companion.

Live coverage: NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashes down after moon mission

December 11, 2022 Stephen Clark

NASA’s unpiloted Orion spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at 32 times the speed of sound Sunday, surviving a fiery-hot descent before deploying parachutes and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California at 12:40 p.m. EST (1740 GMT). The Orion capsule successfully completed NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, a precursor to future astronaut missions on the spacecraft.