NASA defends the program as a boon to space exploration that has generated tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in commerce. NASA's Office of Inspector General has projected total Artemis costs will run to $93 billion by 2025. More than a decade in development with years of delays and budget overruns, the SLS-Orion spacecraft has so far cost NASA least $37 billion, including design, construction, testing and ground facilities. On November 16, 2022, the SLS rocket successfully launched as part of the Artemis I Mission, which served as an uncrewed test flight to validate the rocket. The heat shield is designed to withstand re-entry friction expected to raise temperatures outside the capsule to nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 Celsius). 11.Īlthough no humans will be aboard, Orion will carry a simulated crew of three - one male and two female mannequins - fitted with sensors to measure radiation levels and other stresses that real-life astronauts would experience.Ī top objective for the mission is to test the durability of Orion's heat shield during re-entry as it hits Earth's atmosphere at 24,500 miles (39,429 km) per hour, or 32 times the speed of sound, on its return from lunar orbit - much faster than re-entries of capsules returning from the space station. The capsule is expected to splash down in the Pacific on Dec. space agency has built since the Saturn V of the Apollo era.īarring last-minute difficulties, the launch countdown should end with the rocket's four main R-25 engines and its twin solid-rocket boosters igniting to produce 8.8 million pounds of thrust, sending the spacecraft streaking skyward.Ībout 90 minutes after liftoff, the rocket's upper stage will propel Orion out of Earth orbit on course for a 25-day flight that brings it to within 60 miles of the lunar surface before sailing 40,000 miles (64,374 km) beyond the moon and back to Earth. If the mission succeeds, a crewed Artemis II flight around the moon and back could come as early as 2024, followed within a few more years by the program's first lunar landing of astronauts, one of them a woman, with Artemis III.īilled as the most powerful, complex rocket in the world, the SLS represents the biggest new vertical launch system the U.S. Its first voyage is intended to put the 5.75-million-pound vehicle through its paces in a rigorous test flight, pushing its design limits to prove the spacecraft is suitable to fly astronauts. Getting the SLS-Orion spacecraft off the ground is a key first step. The new moon program has enlisted commercial partners such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and the space agencies of Europe, Canada and Japan to eventually establish a long-term lunar base as a stepping stone to even more ambitious human voyages to Mars. But Apollo, born of the U.S.-Soviet space race during the Cold War, was less science-driven than Artemis. Twelve astronauts walked on the moon during six Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972, the only spaceflights yet to place humans on the lunar surface. Named for the Greek goddess of the hunt - and Apollo's twin sister - Artemis aims to return astronauts to the moon's surface as early as 2025.
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