Highlights of NASA’s Artemis Moon Rocket launch

Mr. Nelson said that years ago, to save money, NASA decided to reuse some of the electronic equipment, known as avionics, from the Artemis I Orion capsule in the new Orion capsule for Artemis II. “It takes two years to get the avionics out and remanufacture it, which is very frustrating to me, but it is what it is,” said Mr. Nelson.

There will be four astronauts aboard Artemis II. Three will be from NASA, and one will be Canadian, as part of the agreement that spells out CSA’s participation in the Artemis program. NASA has not yet announced who will fly the mission.

Artemis II’s path will be fairly simple. After launch, the second stage of the Space Launch System will propel Orion into an orbiting elliptical orbit up to 1,800 miles above Earth. This will give the astronauts time to see how the Orion systems work.

Then, when Orion speeds up again, its engine will fire to send it toward the Moon. For Artemis II, the Orion spacecraft will not enter lunar orbit; It will use the Moon’s gravity to bring it back to Earth in order to splash around in the Pacific Ocean. The whole trip should take about 10 days.

The big event will be Artemis III, currently scheduled for no later than 2025.

During the Apollo moon landings in the 1960s and 1970s, the lunar lander was stuffed with a Saturn V rocket. The Artemis III lander will be a copy of the Starship rocket built by SpaceX. The lunar spacecraft will be launched separately, and additional ships will be launched to refill the fuel tanks of the lunar spacecraft before it leaves Earth’s orbit.

On the lunar surface, the spacecraft’s probe will enter what’s known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit, or NRHO

Halo orbits are affected by the gravity of two bodies — in this case, the Earth and the Moon — which helps make the orbit very stable, reducing the amount of fuel needed to keep the spacecraft orbiting the moon. A spacecraft in this orbit never passes behind the Moon, as communications with Earth are severed.

Once the Starship is in lunar orbit, the Space Launch System rocket will send four astronauts in the Orion capsule into the same nearly straight halo orbit. Orion will dock with the Starship. Two of the astronauts will transfer to the Starship rocket, landing somewhere near the south pole of the Moon, while the other two astronauts will remain in orbit on Orion.

After about a week on the surface, the two moonwalkers will lift off in the Starship and rendezvous with Orion in orbit. Then Orion will take the four astronauts back to Earth.

In August, NASA announced 13 possible landing sites.

The astronauts aboard Artemis IV will head to Gateway, a space station-like outpost that NASA will build in the same near-rectangular halo orbit used on Artemis III. This mission will use a Space Launch System rocket with an upgraded second stage, providing enough power to carry the Gateway habitat module.

Originally, NASA planned for Artemis IV to focus on building the Gate. But this year, I decided that the mission would also include a trip to the lunar surface. On Tuesday, NASA announced that SpaceX will provide the probe to Artemis IV.

For Artemis V and subsequent missions, the lunar lander will be docked at Gateway. The astronauts will arrive at the Gateway on Orion, then transfer to the lander for a trip to the surface.

NASA is currently in the middle of a competition for a different company to provide the probe for Artemis V.

between the Companies that may bid to build a competing lander It is Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.

NASA will then run a competition for future lunar landers similar to the way it has hired companies to ferry cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.