NASA on Track for Future Missions with Initial Artemis II Assessments

Four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft on top of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket launch on the agency’s Artemis II test flight, at 6:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 1 from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker Following NASA’s Artemis II mission successfully splashing down on Earth, engineers started diving into detailed analysis of data to assess how key systems and subsystems on the Orion spacecraft, SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, and systems at the launch pad at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida performed. The Artemis II test flight successfully began a new era of exploration, laying the groundwork for the third Artemis mission next year, lunar surface missions, a Moon base, and future missions to Mars. Orion spacecraft After its 694,481-mile journey around the Moon and back, the agency’s Orion spacecraft successfully reentered Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down off the coast of San Diego on April 10. The crew and spacecraft were safeguarded by Orion’s thermal protection system as they traveled nearly 35 times the speed of sound during reentry. Initial inspections of the system found it performed as expected, with no unusual conditions identified. Diver imagery of the spacecraft’s…

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