Inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the work platforms have actually been retracted from around the Artemis I Space Launch System. Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux
An update on our Artemis I objective, test firing an Artemis rocket engine, and a resupply mission provides to the spaceport station … a few of the stories to tell you about– This Week at NASA!
Video Transcript:
An update on our Artemis I objective …
Test firing an Artemis rocket engine …
And a resupply objective provides to the space station …
A few of the stories to tell you about– This Week at NASA!
Teams at our Kennedy Space Center in Florida are assessing schedules and continuing preparations with our Space Launch System or SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, ahead of the upcoming uncrewed Artemis I mission around the Moon.
We are currently targeting no earlier than March 17 for rollout of the combined spacecraft to Launch Pad 39B for final testing– including the wet dress wedding rehearsal test, which is now targeted for early April.
Release of Artemis I is still being targeted for the early May timeframe, however activities with other scheduled launches at Kennedy could need mission supervisors to reassess that timeframe.
Find out more about the Artemis I objective at: nasa.gov/ artemis-1.
Engineers at our Stennis Space Center carried out an RS-25 engine hot fire test on February 24.
4 RS-25s will assist power our Space Launch System rocket on future Artemis deep-space missions, including this years uncrewed Artemis I mission around the Moon.
This was the fourth overall test in the current test series which started in mid-December.
On February 21, Northrop Grummans Cygnus spacecraft got to the International Space Station two days after releasing from our Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron collaborated to record the Cygnus, which was loaded with about 8,300 pounds of cargo, including essential research and critical hardware.
This is also the very first Cygnus mission to feature improved abilities of the spacecraft that permit it to use its engines to carry out a reboost of the station as a standard service for NASA. A reboost is used to change the stations orbit.
NASA and partner agency NOAA are targeting March 1 for the launch of NOAAs GOES-T satellite from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. GOES-T is the 3rd weather observing and environmental tracking system satellite in the GOES-R series.
Once it reaches geostationary orbit, goes-t will be relabelled GOES-18. Then, after successfully completing an orbital checkout of its instruments and systems, it will go into functional service as GOES West– providing crucial data for the U.S. West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and the Pacific Ocean.
February 20 was the 60th anniversary of the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission throughout which late astronaut John Glenn ended up being the very first American to orbit Earth.
Glenns three-orbit flight aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft lasted almost 5 hours– ending with a splashdown landing near the Turks and Caicos Islands, about 800 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral.
He was commemorated as a hero throughout America and went on to serve a number of terms as a U.S. senator representing Ohio.
In 1998, when he was 77, he returned to area aboard area shuttle bus Discovery to take part in a series of tests on the aging process.
Glenn died in December 2016 at the age of 95.
Thats whats up this week @NASA.