NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission: Live updates

Artemis 1 rollout media teleconference today

Today (March 14), NASA will be hosting a live media teleconference discussing the details of the upcoming rollout of the Artemis 1 vehicles.

Rollout of the vehicles, the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and the Orion spacecraft, will take place on Thursday (March 17) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The pair will be carried by the agency’s crawler-transporter 2 vehicle on a slow, 4-mile journey to Launch Pad 39B. 

Join the media teleconference live today at 5:30 EST (2230 GMT) at Space.com or directly via the agency’s Youtube channel. You can watch the event live at the video above.

Send your name around the moon on Artemis 1

You can send your name around the moon on NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed flight that’s scheduled to launch in May or June. Just sign up for a free “boarding pass” at this NASA page — that’s all there is to it! Read more here.

Artemis 1 rocket rollout set for March 17 for May launch

In a press conference today, NASA announced that it will roll out the Artemis 1 moon rocket, the agency’s first Space Launch System megarocket, on March 17 at the Kennedy Space Center in a major milestone for the agency’s return to the moon. 

Artemis 1 will roll out to Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center for up to a month of pad tests and a “wet dress rehearsal” in which the rocket will be fueled as if for launch. The tests will set the stage for an Artemis 1 launch sometime in May 2022, but that could slip to June or July, NASA officials said today. 

You can read the full story, including details on the wet dress rehearsal, rollout and launch window plans, in our wrap story by Mike Wall.

NASA Artemis 1 mission update today

Update for 1:30 pm ET: NASA is now targeting 2:30 p.m. EST (1930 GMT) for its press teleconference today on the Artemis 1 moon mission update.

NASA will hold a live teleconference today to discuss its plans to launch the Artemis 1 moon mission as early as April. The teleconference will begin at 1:30 pm ET (2030 GMT) today and you can listen in live here. 

Artemis 1 is NASA’s first mission to the moon under the agency’s Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts to the moon by around 2025 or so. That crewed moon landing will occur on the Artemis 3 mission. 

As the first to fly, Artemis 1 will not carry a crew, but will fly on a trip around the moon with instruments, cubesats and more aboard. The mission will use the new Space Launch System to launch an Orion space capsule to the moon and back. 

The rollout of that SLS moon rocket is expected sometime in March, with NASA due to give an update on that process today.

NASA fires up Artemis 1 moon rocket’s first-stage engines again

NASA appears to have ironed out the kinks with the core-stage engines of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will launch the Artemis 1 moon mission this spring.

A faulty controller on one of the SLS core-stage engines required some troubleshooting recently, pushing the launch of Artemis 1 — an uncrewed journey around the moon — back to April. Those fixes appeared to work, for the SLS core stage engines performed as expected during a recent series of tests, NASA officials announced on Friday (Feb. 18). Read our story about these developments here.

And speaking of developments: We’re going to get another Artemis 1 update soon. NASA will hold a media teleconference on Thursday (Feb. 24) at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) to discuss the latest progress toward launch. You can listen to it live Thursday here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency.

Artemis 1 rollout delayed, NASA says

NASA’s first Artemis moon mission will launch a little later than expected.

Today (Feb. 2), NASA announced that the rollout of its Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion capsule will be pushed from February to March, though the agency has yet to announce an exact date. 

“Ultimately, we’re going to launch this flight hardware when the flight hardware is ready and when the team’s ready,” Mike Bolger, the program manager of exploration ground systems at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, told Space.com during a news conference held today.

While the exact rollout date and new launch date have not yet been announced, Mike Sarafin, the Artemis 1 mission manager at NASA Headquarters, said during the news conference that if the launch is pushed to April or May, a launch window would extend from April 8 to April 23; another would open May 7 and close May 21.

Learn more at Space.com here.

Artemis 1 status briefing starts soon

NASA officials are holding a news conference today (Feb. 2) at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) to discuss the delayed rollout of the SLS rocket. You can listen to the teleconference live in the window above, courtesy of NASA. 

“While the teams are not working any major issues, NASA has added additional time to complete closeout activities inside the VAB [Vehicle Assembly Building] prior to rolling the rocket out for the first time,” agency officials wrote in a statement.

Full story: NASA delays rollout of Artemis 1 moon mission’s SLS megarocket until March. Hear why today.