NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) will take to the skies at 8:33 a.m. EST on Monday, August 29, 2022.
NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Have you heard about the biggest rocket launch in human history?
It’s getting almost zero press coverage, but before breakfast on Monday, August 29, 2022, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will make its maiden voyage.
It is now on the launch pad in Florida.
It is the first step in a flight program to get the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon by 2025.
Part of the Artemis-1 mission, the SLS takes NASA’s new Orion spacecraft to the Moon and back for a daring 1.3 million-mile journey beyond the Moon lasting 42 days, 3 hours and 20 minutes. It will arrive in San Diego on October 10, 2022.
There will be no astronauts on board Orion this time, this is just a practice, but the sights and sounds of the biggest rocket launch ever is something not to be missed.
When is the NASA Artemis-1 launch?
The uncrewed Artemis-1 autonomous mission will launch between 8:33 and 10:33 a.m. EST on Monday, August 29, 2022, from Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
If weather or other setbacks prevent this, the next release window will be lunchtime on Friday 2 September 2022.
How to watch a live stream of Artemis-1
Coverage begins at 6:30am EST on NASA TV, found on YouTube (below), the NASA website, Facebook, Twitch and in 4k on the NASA UHD channel.
While it’s the launch you’ll be tuning in, you’ll be back later for live views of Earth from orbit and during Orion’s Moonwalk.
The exact time depends on the exact time of takeoff, but it is 5:30 pm EST if takeoff occurs on schedule at 8:33 am EST.
How to watch a live stream of Artemis-1 in virtual reality
You can also watch the launch in 360ยบ using a virtual reality (VR) headset. Felix & Paul Studios’ Space Explorers: Artemis Ascending, with commentary by retired NASA astronauts Karen Nyberg and Doug Hurley, will stream live on:
How big and powerful is the SLS?
At 322 feet tall, the SLS will be the world’s most powerful rocket to launch since NASA’s last Saturn V “moon rocket” carried the Skylab space station into Earth orbit in 1973. With 8.8 million pounds (3.9 million kg) of thrust, SLS is the most powerful rocket ever produced. It may soon be surpassed by SpaceX’s spacecraft, but right now it’s the largest in history.
What is Artemis-1?
Artemis-1 is an unmanned flight test mission during which NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the European Service Model (ESM), and NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the world’s most powerful rocket , will fly to the moon.
The spacecraft and rocket will launch, orbit the Earth, and then send Orion and the ESM into an elliptical orbit around the Moon that will see them reach 62 miles above its surface and about 40,000 miles beyond her. That’s farther than any spacecraft built for astronauts has ever flown.
What is Artemis-2?
Scheduled for 2024, Artemis-2 will be a shorter 10-day iteration of Artemis-1, but with four astronauts on board to test Orion’s life support systems. Artemis-2 will orbit Earth twice before going 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the Moon.
It will be the first manned lunar flyby of the 21st century.
What is Artemis-3?
Aimed for 2025 or later, Artemis-3 will be the first time astronauts have landed on the lunar surface since Apollo 17 left the moon in December 1972.
A 30-day mission will see Orion, with four astronauts aboard, rendezvous with an embryonic lunar orbital access platform-gate, before a female astronaut and a male astronaut descend in a SpaceX vehicle onto the lunar surface near Shackleton Crater at the south pole of the Moon. . The mission will involve four spacewalks over 6.5 days.
More Artemis missions each year until 2030 will help build the Lunar Gate habitation module and descend three more times to the Moon’s surface.
And it all starts on Monday! Do not miss it!
I wish you clear skies and wide eyes.