Artemis 1

The uncrewed Artemis I mission, including the Space Launch System Rocket and Orion spacecraft, is targeting liftoff on August 29 between 8:33 a.m. ET and 10:33 ...

Orion will surpass the distance record of 248,654 miles (400,169 kilometers) -- set by Apollo 13 in 1970 -- on September 8 when it loops around the moon. Orion will make its second-closest approach of the lunar surface, coming within 500 miles (804 kilometers), on October 3. Just before reentering Earth's atmosphere, the service module will separate from Orion. This maneuver will put Orion on a path to the moon. The service module will place Orion in a distant retrograde orbit around the moon on day 10, or September 7. The core stage of the rocket will separate about eight minutes later and fall toward the Pacific Ocean, allowing for Orion's solar array wings to deploy. The perigree raise maneuver will occur about 12 minutes after launch, when the ICPS experiences a burn to raise Orion's altitude so it doesn't reenter the Earth's atmosphere. Orion's journey will last 42 days as it travels to the moon, loops around it and returns to Earth -- traveling a total of 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers). The Orion spacecraft will enter a distant retrograde orbit of the moon and travel 40,000 miles beyond it, going further than any spacecraft intended to carry humans. At 10 minutes and counting, things kick into high gear as the spacecraft and rocket go through the final steps. The broadcast will begin at 12 a.m. However, closer to the end of the launch period the chances decrease to 60% as the chance for scattered showers and storms increases.

Lunar Voyaging V2.0 is quite a bit different than the Apollo effort. But it hardly lacks in boldness when you consider that the core booster of the Space Launch ...

I mean, come on, we’re going back to the Moon after two decades of stooging around in earth orbit on the International Space Station. Some at the time questioned whether the expenditure and risk were worth the gain, but there was at least keen national interest. And therein lies the downside of repurposing existing technology. The SLS has four and initially, it will use engines already flown on the Shuttle. In a sense, NASA is channeling its all-up history because it won’t fly any test flights in the interim. The only major component of it that has flown somewhat configured is the Orion crew capsule—in 2014. Piper did this with the Cherokee line, Beech with the Musketeer, the Sundowner and the Sierra. But it hardly lacks in boldness when you consider that the core booster of the Space Launch System that comprises Artemis 1 has never flown, much less the entire configuration. Even at that, NASA still flew sub-components of the Saturn system before launching the full stack. No humans aboard, just three instrumented mannequins, but someone gets to say go for TLI, a phrase last used in human space flight in December 1972 when Apollo 17 put the last crew on the lunar surface. Lunar Voyaging V2.0 is quite a bit different than the Apollo effort. In the dry parlance of NASA, it was “go for TLI”—translunar injection.