Tune in to CNN for live coverage from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida from Saturday morning through Monday morning’s launch. Space correspondents Kristin Fisher and Rachel Crane will bring us momentbymoment coverage of the launch along with a team of experts.
The uncrewed Artemis I mission, including the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, is targeted for liftoff on Aug. 29 between 8:33 a.m. ET and 10:33 a.m. ET from the Center NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Although there is no human crew on board the mission, it is the first step in the Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and eventually land them on Mars.
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. Crews will travel aboard Artemis II on a similar trajectory in 2024, and the first woman and next man to land on the Moon are scheduled to reach the lunar south pole in late 2025 on the Artemis III mission.
Also on the program are celebrity appearances by Jack Black, Chris Evans and Keke Palmer and performances of “The StarSpangled Banner” by Josh Groban and Herbie Hancock and “America the Beautiful” by The Philadelphia Orchestra and the cellist YoYo Ma. .
After the launch has taken place, NASA will hold a postlaunch briefing, and later the agency will share the first views of Earth from cameras aboard the Orion spacecraft.
Orion’s journey will last 42 days as it travels to the Moon, orbits it, and returns to Earth, covering a total of 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers). The capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on October 10.
Here’s everything you can expect before, during and after launch.
Countdown to launch
The official launch countdown will begin on August 27th at 10:23am ET.
The call to stations will take place Saturday morning at the Kennedy Space Center, as well as for teams providing support from various centers around the country. This is when all the teams associated with the mission reach their consoles and report that they are ready, starting a twoday countdown.
Over the weekend, engineers will power up the Orion spacecraft, the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (the top of the rocket), and the core stage, charge the batteries and perform final engine preparation.
Late Sunday night into the early hours of Monday morning, the launch team will hold a briefing to discuss weather conditions and decide whether they are “go” or “no go” to begin fueling the rocket
If all looks good, the team will begin fueling the rocket’s center stage eight hours before launch. Five hours earlier, the upper stage will begin to feed. The team will then complete and replenish the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that is dissipated during the feeding process.
About 50 minutes before launch, the final briefing by NASA’s test director will take place. A planned 30minute countdown will begin approximately 40 minutes prior to launch.
The launch director will poll the team to ensure that all stations will be “on” 15 minutes prior to liftoff.
At 10 minutes and counting, things kick into high gear as the spacecraft and rocket go through their final stages. Much of the action takes place in the last minute, as the launch sequencer on the ground sends the command for the automated launch sequencer in the rocket’s flight computer to take more than 30 seconds before launch.
In the final seconds, the hydrogen will burn, all four RS25 engines will fire, resulting in boost ignition and liftoff at minusT.
trip to the moon
After liftoff, the solid rocket boosters will separate from the spacecraft about two minutes into flight and burst into the Atlantic Ocean, with other components also ejecting shortly thereafter. The rocket’s center stage will separate about eight minutes later and fall into the Pacific Ocean, allowing Orion’s solar array wings to deploy.
The perigee lifting maneuver will occur about 12 minutes after launch, when the ICPS undergoes a burn to raise Orion’s altitude so it does not reenter Earth’s atmosphere. Translunar injection burn occurs shortly thereafter, when the ICPS increases Orion’s speed from 17,500 miles per hour (28,163 kilometers per hour) to 22,600 miles per hour (36,371 kilometers per hour) to escape the pull of Earth’s gravity and go to the moon.
After this burn, the ICPS will separate from Orion.
At around 4:30 p.m., Orion will perform its first exit trajectory correction burn using the European Service Module, which provides the spacecraft with power, propulsion and thermal control. This maneuver will put Orion on a path to the Moon.
In the coming days after launch, Orion will venture to the moon, within 60 miles (96 kilometers) during its closest approach to the lunar surface on the sixth day of the trip, or on September 3 if the launch happens as was due in August. 29. The service module will place Orion in a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon on September 10, or 7.
Orion will surpass the distance record of 248,654 miles (400,169 kilometers) – set by Apollo 13 in 1970 – on September 8 when it orbits the Moon. The spacecraft will reach its maximum distance from Earth of 280,000 miles (450,616 kilometers) on September 23 when it ventures 40,000 miles (64,373 kilometers) beyond the Moon.
That’s 30,000 miles (48,280 kilometers) further than the Apollo 13 record.
Orion will make its second closest approach to the lunar surface, within 500 miles (804 kilometers), on October 3. The service module will undergo a burn that will allow the moon’s gravity to throw Orion back on its way to Earth.
Just before reentering Earth’s atmosphere, the Service Module will separate from Orion. The spacecraft will hit the top of Earth’s atmosphere moving at about 25,000 miles per hour (40,233 kilometers per hour), and its heat shield will experience temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius).
The atmosphere will slow Orion to about 300 miles per hour (482 kilometers per hour) and a series of parachutes will slow it to less than 20 miles per hour (32 kilometers per hour) before it splashes into the Pacific Ocean at at 11:53 a.m
Splashdown will be streamed live from NASA’s website, gathering views from the 17 cameras aboard the recovery ship and the helicopters that will be waiting for Orion’s return.
The landing and recovery team will collect the Orion capsule, and the data collected by the spacecraft will determine what lessons have been learned before humans return to the Moon.