ARTEMIS MISSIONS USHERING IN A NEW PERIOD OF SPACEFLIGHT

If successful, Artemis III will be the first crewed lunar landing since the final Apollo mission in
1972, and the first ever to put a woman and a person of color on the moon.
For the first time in nearly 50 years, NASA is preparing for a historic first, launching a new
powerful moon rocket, the Space Launch System, on its maiden voyage.
Taking inspiration from the old Soyuz rockets of the Soviet Union, Artemis is a mix of the Space
Shuttle, Saturn V, and Soyuz rockets which dominated the Space Race during the Cold War.
NASA's Artemis I moon mission made a monumental achievement on Monday, with the Orion
space capsule passing about 80 miles (130 kilometers) above the lunar surface.
The goal of the Artemis program is to eventually establish a lunar outpost that can permanently
host astronauts for the first time in history.
Shaun, of British TV show "Shaun the Sheep" fame, is flying aboard the Artemis I mission in plush
doll form.
NASA also plans to send Artemis programs to Mars by 2025.
The Artemis I mission is the first major step in NASA’s comprehensive plans to return astronauts
to the surface of the Moon by the end of the decade.
Snoopy, the beloved Peanuts character, has long been associated with NASA missions since the
Apollo program.
Artemis is an ancient goddess, worshipped by The Greeks, but also seen in many other cultures
under different names.
The unmanned Artemis I mission is a 25-day journey around the moon and back to test NASA’s
ability to one-day return astronauts there.
Orion is expected to travel more than 40,000 miles (64,373 kilometers) beyond the far side of the
moon, the furthest a spacecraft intended to carry humans has ever traveled.
After months of technical and weather-related delays, Artemis I finally blasted off last Wednesday
and is completing its mission checklist as planned, remaining in its current orbit around the moon
for about a week to test spacecraft systems.
After completing its nearly month-long mission, Orion will splashdown on Dec. 11 in the Pacific
Ocean off the coast of California.
Objects of cultural significance are also on the roundtrip journey, including a 3D-printed replica of
the Greek goddess Artemis, and a pebble from the lowest dry land surface on Earth, the shore of
the Dead Sea — venturing further than any human has gone before.
Artemis III is expected to send a crew to the moon in 2025 near the lunar south pole, the site of
NASA's envisioned research base.
Artemis program is likely to generate significant economic impacts, improve innovation and
technology development in the space sector, and contribute to the growth of the STEM pipeline
The last time the space agency conducted a test flight of a moon rocket was the mighty Saturn V
in 1967. Two years later, a Saturn V rocket would launch the Apollo 11 mission, sending
astronauts to the moon.
Apollo 4 completed the flight by splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, and Orion will do the same.
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