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The long awaited launch of the NASA Artemis 1 Moon rocket is just around the corner!
After a series of delays and preparations for launch, the massive Moon rocket is set to launch this week from Florida.
The Artemis program is a series of steps to launch astronauts and payloads to the Moon, with an eventual landing of astronauts to the lunar surface.
Here is a brief outline of the NASA Artemis program and some of its goals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program
The quick overview of the mission is listed here:
Artemis is the Greek goddess of the Moon and “Twin of Apollo, who will guide us to the Moon and beyond with this bold NASA mission.
Artemis and her story is outlined here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis
The Artemis program had its start a few years ago as the NASA Constellation program. The goals of the Constellation program were similar to those of Artemis. The components of Constellation were to complete the International Space Station, return astronauts to the Moon and to venture out to Mars with a manned mission.
The program was cancelled under the Obama administration as too expensive and unrealistic timelines.
The details of Constellation are outlined here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation_program
The main rocket of the Constellation program was the Ares1 rocket. This two stage rocket had a main solid rocket motor and a second stage using chemical propulsion.
Only one launch of the Ares 1 was made back on October 28th 2009 from the Kennedy Space Center.
Here is the video of that launch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0ZHzAvFuYc
The focus now is on the Artemis program and after a series of delays and other issues, the rocket is set to launch by November 16 at the earliest. This is an unmanned mission to obit the Moon and test out many systems on the rocket and the new developed Orion capsule.
The Orion capsule is a larger version of the older Apollo capsule with many new state of the art technologies.
Here are the details on the Orion capsule:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhD-1-HqhLM
The next Artemis mission will be Artemis 2 and will be a crewed mission around the Moon to further check out systems and human factors for the eventual Artemis 3 mission,
with a planned landing on the Moon.
Details on Artemis 2-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_2
Details on Artemis 3-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_3
In addition to landing on the Moon, there will be the first female astronaut on the surface of the Moon!
Who will that be?
Here are some candidates for that historic mission:
With all this being reported; we wish NASA the best in launching Artemis 1 on the long journey to return humans to the Moon and beyond.
Follow the launch activity LIVE at this site:
Ad Astra!…..
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