The Artemis 1 space mission: history in the making

The Artemis 1 mission, which has seen multiple unforeseen delays in the past few months, made history this week when it launched from Cape Canaveral in the early morning hours of November 16, with the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from NASA providing 8.8 million pounds of thrust to the Orion capsule. This is the first in a series of planned missions to return people to the moon for the first time since 1972, when the last Apollo mission touched down on the lunar surface.

The goals for Artemis 1 are chiefly to ensure the safety of all future missions, which are intended to be manned, thus testing the crew module entry, descent and splashdown on return to earth after the return trip to the moon is complete. It is thus intended to provide a foundation for eventual human deep space exploration. Indeed, Artemis 1 will be the longest mission ever to remain in deep space without docking to a space station. Upon arrival in proximity to the moon, after a journey that will take several days, the Orion spacecraft shall fly about 100km above the surface of the moon, then using a gravity assist to propel itself to a higher orbit around the moon, this time some 70,000km from the lunar...