NASA Space Flight reports that the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission “is nearing final assembly and testing at prime contractor Lockheed Martin’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) production facility.” After a final standalone test “on the Orion crew module (CM), it is expected to be mated to the service module (SM) in mid-September.” If there are no problems “in the remaining months of testing, Lockheed Martin believes they can complete their work by the end of April next year.” NASA is “planning Artemis II as a week-and-a-half long, lunar-flyby mission; it will be the first crewed test flight for Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) and the four-person astronaut crew recently visited KSC together for the first time to see their spacecraft.” NASA is still “retaining its late November 2024 launch forecast as a ‘work to’ date, although the pace of work is currently ‘a number of weeks’ behind that forecast.”
Full Story (NASA Space Flight)
Tag: mission managers
NASA Sets Artemis II Launch for November 2024
The Orlando (FL) Sentinel reports that NASA mission managers “said Tuesday they are targeting November 2024 for Artemis II, the mission to send four astronauts to orbit the moon but not land there.” However, wrinkles from the Artemis I mission still have to be ironed out; first among them is the “unexpected heat shield performance during the 5,000-degree reentry.” The uncrewed Artemis I flight “saw the successful launch of the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket to ever bring a payload to space.” Artemis II “looks to put humans on board the Orion capsule, and just how well the spacecraft can keep its passengers safe is at the top of NASA’s concerns.”
Full Story (Orlando Sentinel)