NASA has an updated timeline on plans to put astronauts on the moon. And, the agency praised the engineers behind its Alabama built rocket that plays a role in that effort. NASA wants to launch Artemis three next year on a seventeen day mission to test two commercial moon landers. Program manager Jeremy Parsons says engineers with the Alabama built Space Launch System rocket had parts ready for that new mission just five months after the landing of Artemis two.
“The minute the mission for Artemis III was announced, our teams began accelerating booster deliveries, and actually we had, I think, a call that evening of the ignition event to get boosters delivered earlier, and laying out planned stacks by that operations. To that end, stacking was completed at the end of September,” said Parsons.
Artemis-2 sent four astronauts on the first visit to the moon by a space crew since Apollo-17 in 1972. That earlier lunar landing included Gene Cernan, who left the last footprints on the moon, at the Taurus-Littrow valley. Artemis-2 didn’t land on the lunar surface, but the astronauts did take close pictures of the moon during a mission that mimicked the flight of Apollo-8. Jeremy Parsons says Artemis-3 is next, and the Alabama built rocket which will carry the four astronauts to Earth orbit was ready to go five months after the landing of the Artemis-2 mission.
“That's a pretty big deal when you think it's just five months after we just landed Artemis II. And then, for some additional perspective, we were able to cut the time it took to prepare the booster segments for stacking in half, and booster stacking operations were completed in 20% of the time.
If all goes well, an Alabama built Space Launch System rocket will send Artemis four on its moon landing mission in 2028. Click below for APR news’ indepth coverage of Artemis-2, including the hashtag “Challenger trauma” which was trending on the social media site Bluesky as the four astronauts blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center.
