March 29, 2024

Bicol Express News

Your Voice ● Your News ● One Nation

NASA’s Artemis 1 goes to the moon

Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Kennedy Space Center, Florida – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Wednesday launched Artemis 1 using its most powerful rocket ever built for the moon exploration and back.

Artemis 1 is an astronaut-less moon journey using NASA cutting-edge technology that created its most powerful rocket so far in use for the said moon exploration.

For NASA, the mission opens a new dawn of lunar exploration; it seeks to untangle the decades-long myth in the shadows of craters in the polar regions of the moon, test new technologies to use in future missions to Mars and attract private business to invest in new space journeys or mission beyond the solar system

The four powerful engines on the rocket’s core stage ignited, along with two thinner side rocket boosters. As the NASA countdown hit zero, locks holding the rocket was released and Artemis 1 lifts-off

Minutes after lifting off, the side rocket boosters and then the giant core stage was released. The rocket’s upper engine then exploded to carry the Orion spacecraft.

After less than two hours since soaring into the sky, the rockets’ upper stage will ignite one last time to boost the Orion towards the moon. On Monday, Orion will be clear within 60 miles of the moon’s surface. After orbiting the moon for a couple of weeks, the Orion will return to Earth, touching down on Dec. 11 in the Pacific Ocean, about 60 miles off the coast of California.

The launch was reportedly years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget before. The delays and budget overshoot reflects how NASA has managed its programs

NASA’s Artemis next mission would happen not earlier than 2024 and will take four astronauts on a journey around the moon but not to the surface. Another MOON MISSION NDER Artemis III which is currently scheduled for 2025 will have 2 astronauts land near the moon’s South Pole.

Casey Dreier, the chief policy adviser for the Planetary Society, a nonprofit that promotes exploration of space, said that the Artemis mission project has still sprawling expense problems that might be the cost of sustaining political support for a space program in a federal democracy. Even if Artemis is not the best or most efficient design, it provides jobs to the employees of NASA and aerospace companies across the country, he said. That provides continuing political support for the moon program.

“Congress has done nothing but add more money to Artemis every single year it’s been in existence,” Mr. Dreier said.

NASA is currently negotiating with the rocket’s manufacturers for up to 20 more launches.