A close-up view of NASA's Artemis 1 Space Launch System megarocket inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 20, 2021.(Image credit: NASA/Frank Michaux) As of this writing, Artemis 1 is expected to start its mission no earlier than May 202...
Artemis 1 does have a launch windows in mid-September, but NASA would likely have to push to mid-October due to the time needed to roll back and forth between Pad 39B and the Vehicle Assembly Building, mission managers have said. That October window opens on Oct. 17 and closes on Oct....
Artemis 1 leaves Earth after several delays. A major one resulted from fuel leaks in the liquid hydrogen tank. The leak, occurring on September 3, 2022, sent the entire SLS back to NASA's gigantic Vehicle Assembly Building. Engineers identified and fixed the leak in short order, but other ...
Size and Capacity: Described as truck-sized, the Eagle LTV is intended to be a valuable vehicle for lunar operations, capable of transporting heavy cargo to support NASA’s Artemis astronauts and commercial activities. Testing and Refinement: The design has undergone human factors testing at NASA’...
The spacecraft will rely on the large chemical rocket engines of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle to blast off the launchpad and to escape Earth’s gravity. But the rest of the journey, once Psyche separates from the launch vehicle, will rely onsolar electric propulsion. This form of propulsi...
“The pressure is now on to complete assembly and test of the vehicle prior to shipment to Cape Canaveral in less than a year. It’s both exhilarating and stressful for all involved, but I have total confidence in this team’s ability to get the job done in time for our ...
Planned to be a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttles were built by 1985. The first to launch, Columbia, did so on April 12, 1981.The shuttle was not all good news for NASA – flights were much more expensive than initially projected, and the public again ...
To get a sense of how much SLS might cost, let us assume the rocket makes its first flight on time in 2018.Optimistically, let us also assume that, over the next 20 years, the vehicle makes 20 successful flights, enabling the first crewed mission to the surface of Mars before the e...
(more on this in theBonusFacts later), climbed down the leg of a strange, spidery vehicle, stepped onto the surface of the moon, and spoke the immortal words:“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”…Followed by the much less memorable second words, “I...
The launch platform during assembly.(Image credit: Ian Stokes) The completed launch platform with the early stages of the launch tower.(Image credit: Ian Stokes) Building the Lego NASA Artemis Space Launch System is split into three sections: the base platform, the launch tower, and the rocket...