The Orion crew module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday and was successfully retrieved by the U.S. Navy’s USS Portland. The Artemis I mission appears to be a complete success. If the onboard instruments confirm that early view, then NASA could be sending astronauts to the Moon for the first time in over fifty years.
The Portland will soon begin its trip back to U.S. Naval Base San Diego, where engineers will remove Orion from the ship in preparation for transport back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida for post-flight analysis.
Following Orion’s successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, flight controllers in mission control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston spent about two hours performing tests in open water to gather additional data about the spacecraft.
Orion was launched into space by the Space Launch System (SLS) – the most powerful rocket ever built. Thousands of Alabamians have worked on making this day a reality – both at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which was tasked with leading the cutting-edge engineering on the SLS, as well as by NASA’s many contractors in the north Alabama area.
On Friday, NASA finalized its contract with Boeing of Huntsville for approximately $3.2 billion to continue manufacturing core and upper stages for future SLS rockets for Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
Under the SLS Stages Production and Evolution Contract action, Boeing will produce SLS core stages for Artemis III and IV, procure critical and long-lead material for the core stages for Artemis V and VI, provide the exploration upper stages (EUS) for Artemis V and VI, as well as tooling and related support and engineering services.
“NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is the only rocket capable of sending large cargos and, soon, astronauts to the Moon,” said John Honeycutt, SLS Program manager. “The SLS core stage is the backbone of NASA’s Moon rocket, producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust at launch, and the addition of the exploration upper stage will enable NASA to support missions to deep space through the 2030s.”
The SLS rocket delivers propulsion in stages and is designed to evolve to more advanced configurations to power NASA’s deep space missions. Each SLS rocket configuration uses the same 212-foot-tall core stage to produce more than 2 million pounds of thrust to help propel the mega-rocket off the launch pad.
The contract comes as NASA optimizes manufacturing capabilities as Boeing will use Kennedy Space Center in Florida to perform some core stage assembly and outfitting activities beginning with the Artemis III rocket. Teams continue to make progress assembling and manufacturing core stages for Artemis II, III, and IV. The Artemis II stage is scheduled to be completed and delivered to Kennedy in the coming year. The engine section for Artemis III was recently loaded onto NASA’s Pegasus barge for delivery to Kennedy, where it will be outfitted and later integrated with the rest of the rocket.
Artemis IV is scheduled to be the mission that lands the first astronauts on the Moon since 1972. That mission will include the first woman on the Moon and the first person of color. NASA hopes to put a permanent human presence on the Moon beginning late in this decade and a man on Mars by the middle of the next decade.
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