Artemis Launch Window Opens in Aug 2022

July 2, 2022 – The journey back to the moon for NASA continues with final repairs, testing and closeouts on the Space Launch System. The 322-foot-tall moon rocket completed tests on launch pad 39B and was rolled back to High Bay 3 the Vehicle Assembly Building. After ten years in development at a cost of more than $20 billion dollars, the rocket is scheduled to take an unmanned Orion crew capsule on a course to orbit the moon later this summer.

If this flight is successful, Artemis 2 will then carry a crew for a loop around the far side of the moon in 2024, the first such mission since 1972. And later Artemis missions will use a commercial crew lander from lunar obit to the surface of the moon.

Although NASA has not set a date for the launch for the first SLS rocket, it is expected to take place in August or September when the alignment of the moon, the sun and the Earth will be correct for mission objectives.

Featured image: The Moon is seen rising behind NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard atop a mobile launcher as it rolls out to Launch Complex 39B for the first time, Thursday, March 17, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ahead of NASA’s Artemis I flight test, the fully stacked and integrated SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft will undergo a wet dress rehearsal at Launch Complex 39B to verify systems and practice countdown procedures for the first launch. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)

Source: Spaceflight Now