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• 22 November 2022

NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the Moon — in pictures

• Alexandra Witze

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The Orion spacecraft swooped just 130 kilometres above the lunar surface on 21 November — the closest a capsule designed to hold people has been to the Moon in half a century. In the lunar darkness, the capsule, which launched as part of the Artemis I mission last week, flew directly over Tranquility Base: the landing site of Apollo 11 where, in July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the Moon.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03819-w

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How long does it take to get to the moon? Nasa Artemis 1 mission schedule and the moon’s distance from earth

If successful it will break the record for the longest flight without docking at a space station.

Nasa’s Artemis 1 mission has successfully launched.

It will send the uncrewed Orion spacecraft to the moon and back, testing key systems and safety ahead of the crewed mission.

The aim is to get astronauts on the moon by 2024, which will be the first time humans have left the earth’s orbit since 1972.

How long does it take to get to the moon?

The average distance to the moon is 382,500km, and according to Nasa , rockets using current propulsion systems take between 2.5 and four days to arrive at the moon.

This being said, the Artemis mission will spend a great deal longer in space as it has other tasks to complete on the dark side of the moon and beyond.

More from News

Artemis 1 mission schedule

Artemis I launched of the SLS on Wednesday 16 November.

The crewless test mission will send the Orion spacecraft to the moon and back carrying dummies designed to mimic human tissue. A crewed mission is set for 2024.

The 1.3 million mile journey is expected to last 42 days, three hours and 20 minutes. If successful it will break the record for the longest flight without docking at a space station.

The spacecraft will also make a close pass of the lunar surface. Along the way around the moon, Nasa will perform two fly-bys measuring at 62 miles above the rocky surface.

Dr Bhavya Lal, Nasa’s associate administrator for technology, policy, and strategy, said that ultimately the agency wanted to see human settlements “throughout the solar system”.

“The point is that we don’t stop when we have gone to Mars,” she told the Telegraph . “By the time we have thriving settlements on Mars, we probably have enough technology that we can push deeper into space.

“I think that idea is simply that we are not stopping. Our long term strategic visions to have a sustained presence on the Moon, Mars and throughout the Solar System.”

Most Read By Subscribers

Artemis mission: How you can track Orion's trip to the moon in real time

After several failed attempts, NASA has finally launched the first phase of the Artemis mission . 

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In this phase, the unmanned Orion spacecraft will take a trip around the moon and back– and you can track its journey in real time. 

By using the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW), anyone with internet access can see where Orion is in space. 

The real-time tracker will also show trip information such as mission elapsed time, velocity and spacecraft distance from the Earth and moon. 

Also: What is Artemis? Everything you need to know about NASA's new moon mission

"This is a really powerful way to engage with the mission and understand the scope of what NASA is trying to accomplish with Artemis I," said Seth Lambert, the Orion programmer who created AROW.

You can access AROW at any time by simply visiting the website or by following Orion Spacecraft's Twitter account where you will get updates on travel status. The Twitter account will also provide vectors for Orion's location that will pinpoint exactly where Orion is located in space. 

Mission Time: 0 days, 10 hrs, 5 min Orion is 61,078 miles from Earth, 201,852 miles from the Moon, cruising at 5,281 miles per hour. P: (-64593, -7035, 2841) V: (-4918, -1844, -547) O: 63º, 45.4º, 350.5º What's this? https://t.co/voR4yGy2mg #TrackArtemis pic.twitter.com/ZVIgaJ1WfY — Orion Spacecraft (@NASA_Orion) November 16, 2022

On the website, users also have the option to download trajectory data from the flight, called an ephemeris, which you can use to track Orion with your own spaceflight software application or telescope. The data can be used to create physics models, animations, visualizations and other projects of that nature, according to NASA .

"Knowing what the spacecraft is doing during the mission is already cool, but now that Orion's data can be visualized in all these different ways, it will be interesting to see what creative projects others come up with," said Richard Garodnick, an engineer on the mission control center system engineering and development team at Johnson.

The Orion spacecraft will travel 40,000 miles beyond the moon during Artemis I with the goal of testing NASA's deep-space exploration systems, making sure the agency is ready to send astronauts to the moon and beyond. The Artemis mission will culminate with landing the first woman and person of color on the moon in the third phase of the mission. 

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Artemis Orion capsule flies by moon en route to record-breaking lunar orbit

First time an american capsule has visited the moon since apollo program 50 years ago.

Social Sharing

NASA's Orion capsule reached the moon on Monday, whipping around the far side and buzzing the lunar surface on its way to a record-breaking orbit with test dummies sitting in for astronauts.

It's the first time an American capsule has visited the moon since NASA's Apollo program 50 years ago, and represents a huge milestone in the $4.1-billion US test flight that began last Wednesday .

Video of the looming moon and our pale blue planet more than 370,000 kilometres in the distance left workers "giddy" at Houston's Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control, according to flight director Judd Frieling. Even the flight controllers themselves were "absolutely astounded."

"Just smiles across the board," said Orion program manager Howard Hu.

The close approach of 130 kilometres occurred as the crew capsule and its three wired-up dummies were on the far side of the moon. Because of a half-hour communication blackout, flight controllers in Houston did not know if the critical engine firing went well until the capsule emerged from behind the moon.

The capsule's cameras sent back a picture of the Earth — a tiny blue orb surrounded by blackness.

"Our pale blue dot and its eight billion human inhabitants now coming into view," said Mission Control commentator Sandra Jones.

NASA's Orion spacecraft completes flyby of the moon

The capsule accelerated well beyond 8,000 km/h as it regained radio contact, NASA said. Less than an hour later, Orion soared above Tranquility Base, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on July 20, 1969. There were no photos of the site because the pass was in darkness, but managers promised to try for pictures on the return flyby in two weeks.

"This is one of those days that you've been thinking about and talking about for a long, long time," flight director Zeb Scoville said.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson:

A successful outbound powered fly-by burn is a huge step in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Artemis?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Artemis</a> I mission and an important step in understanding our spacecraft before we fly astronauts to the Moon.<br><br>Congratulations to the thousands of team members who have gotten us to this point. And go <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA_Orion?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NASA_Orion</a>!! <a href="https://t.co/lmH0Pi6lft">https://t.co/lmH0Pi6lft</a> &mdash; @SenBillNelson

Crewed flight around moon could occur in 2024

Earlier in the morning, the moon loomed ever larger in the video beamed back, as the capsule closed the final few thousand miles since blasting off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center atop the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA.

Orion needed to slingshot around the moon to pick up enough speed to enter the sweeping, lopsided lunar orbit. Another firing will place the capsule in that orbit Friday.

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This coming weekend, Orion will shatter NASA's distance record for a spacecraft designed for astronauts — nearly 400,000 kilometres from Earth, set by Apollo 13 in 1970. And it will keep going, reaching a maximum distance from Earth next Monday at nearly 433,000 kilometres.

The capsule will spend close to a week in lunar orbit, before heading home. A Pacific splashdown is planned for Dec. 11.

Canada's role in planned trips to the moon

Orion has no lunar lander; a touchdown won't come until NASA astronauts attempt a lunar landing in 2025 with SpaceX's Starship. Before then, astronauts will strap into Orion for a ride around the moon as early as 2024.

Mission manager Mike Sarafin was delighted with the progress of the mission, giving it a "cautiously optimistic A-plus" so far.

The Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever built by NASA, performed exceedingly well in its debut, Sarafin told reporters. He said teams are dealing with two issues that require workarounds — one involving the navigational star trackers, the other the power system.

The 98-metre rocket caused more damage than expected, however, at the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. The force from the four million kilograms of liftoff thrust was so great that it tore off the blast doors of the elevator, leaving it unusable.

Sarafin said the pad damage will be repaired in plenty of time before the next launch.

NASA successfully launches Artemis I moon rocket

Orion's journey to moon: Track Artemis I capsule in real time

Artemis 1 mission: closer look at orion spacecraft elements.

The Artemis 1 moon rocket is comprised of the Space Launch System (SLS), which is the super heavy-lift launch vehicle, and the Orion spacecraft, which contains three main elements including the capsule that will carry astronauts into space.

Half a day after launching from Kennedy Space Center , NASA's Orion spacecraft was more than 60,000 miles away from Earth, sending back the first images of our home planet.

Orion launched Wednesday on the Space Launch System rocket at 1:47 a.m. Eastern, beginning its nearly 26-day test flight, known as the Artemis 1 mission, around the moon.

The spacecraft is already sending back the first breathtaking views of our planet using a series of cameras that act as the "eyes" of Orion. 

A camera took the view below from Orion's solar array. Redwire Space Chief Engineer and Deep Space Systems founder Steve Bailey told FOX Weather earlier this year the solar arrays are like "big selfie sticks" for Orion.

Only half a day into its journey, Orion is already sending back breathtaking views of our planet. [Credit: NASA]

More Artemis I coverage

• How SLS, NASA's new mega moon rocket, compares to Apollo-era Saturn V
• What does the Artemis symbol mean?
• What is NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission going to do?
• Artemis I vs Apollo 11: Why has it taken NASA so long to return to the moon?
• These recycled space shuttle parts are now powering Artemis I to space

Meanwhile, another camera inside Orion showed the "moonikin" Campos in the commander's seat, wearing an Orion survival system suit. Campos is equipped with sensors that will help NASA gather data for future flights with astronauts. 

Artemis I mission timeline

Not even a day into its spaceflight, NASA's Orion team has been busy, and several mission milestones are coming up.

Propelled by the European service module, Orion is moving at more than 5,000 mph, and its outbound journey to the moon will take several days. 

Engineers will use a series of engine thrusts to ensure the spacecraft is positioned toward its lunar destination. A trans-lunar injection burn happened about an hour after Orion launched from Kennedy Space Center, setting the spacecraft on its correct course toward the moon.

Orion brought along hitchhikers in the form of 10 tiny spacecraft that will be deployed at different points in the spaceflight to the moon. A total of 10 CubeSats will be deployed from Orion's stage adapter , a ring that attaches to the interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS). 

According to NASA, each tiny satellite designed by international, industry and university partners will gather data to help future moon missions and Mars exploration. The European Space Agency, Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) are among the international payloads flying with Orion. 

On Monday, Nov. 21, Orion will complete an outbound flyby power burn for its closest approach to the moon.

The burn begins around 7:43 a.m. Eastern and the closest approach to the moon happens around 8 a.m. Eastern. NASA plans to air live coverage of the event on NASA TV and online.

Orion will travel about 40,000 miles beyond the moon's far side, farther than any human-rated spacecraft. This lunar orbit is known as the distance retrograde orbit or DRO. 

NASA's Artemis 1 spacecraft will orbit the moon for about six days before beginning the trip back to Earth.

How to follow the Artemis 1 mission

NASA launched a website tracking Orion's whereabouts that shows how fast it's traveling, the position of the spacecraft and the distance to the moon and Earth.

The space agency plans to regularly release video recaps and post daily updates on the agency's Artemis blog throughout the spaceflight.

NASA has several dedicated Twitter accounts providing updates on Orion and the Artemis 1 test flight, including NASA Orion and NASA Artemis . The NASA Moon Twitter handle will also share images and science information throughout the journey. 

The Artemis 1 test flight will culminate after 25.5 days when Orion splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Dec. 11. 

TRACK ARTEMIS I ORION SPACECRAFT IN REAL TIME

Continuing Coverage

Artemis Updates: These Are the Key Moments From Launch to Lunar Orbit and Splashdown

The artemis 1 mission began with a launch from florida before beginning the orion spacecraft's loop around the moon and a journey back to earth. here's a timeline of key events., by jonathan lloyd • published august 25, 2022 • updated on november 16, 2022 at 11:18 am.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Nov. 16, 2022 to reflect the launch and updated mission timeline.

What to Know

• The Artemis 1 Mission to orbit the moon lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early morning hours of Nov. 16.
• The 26-day mission will be highlighted by an orbit around the moon, carrying the Orion un-crewed spacecraft 280,000 miles beyond Earth.
• Orion is scheduled for splashdown in mid-December after traveling 1.3 million miles.

📺 Los Angeles news 24/7: Watch NBC4 free wherever you are

A critical test flight that will provide a first look at NASA's new era of space travel begins with what should be a spectacular rocket launch from the Florida coast.

From there, critical moments and in-flight maneuvers will determine the success of the un-crewed Artemis 1 Mission , the first real step toward the first crewed moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning . Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.

Here's a timeline of key events that will follow the Artemis 1 launch on a journey to orbit the moon and the Orion spacecraft's return to Earth.

Artemis vs. Apollo: See How the Technology of NASA's Missions To The Moon Compare

NASA's Artemis I Mission: When and How to Watch the Rocket Launch

Flight day 1: liftoff.

The giant 30-story tall Artemis I rocket will produce a maximum 8.8. million pounds of thrust when it launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That's more power exertion than any rocket ever, NASA says.

Critical Moments After Liftoff

A precisely timed chain of events follows in the next roughly eight-minute window. The twin solid rocket boosters will separate, followed by the jettison of the service module fairing and launch abort system. The 212-foot tall core stage main engine will cut off before it too separates from the spacecraft.

Earth's gravity will be pulling on the rocket the entire time, requiring the launch system's engine to burn 735,000 gallons of liquid propellant to create 2 million pounds of thrust during its escape to the edge of space. Once their jobs are done, the solid rocket boosters and core stage will simply fall back to Earth.

Solar panels will deploy to generate power for Orion.

The @NASAArtemis mission is launching to the Moon, beginning a new era of lunar exploration! Artemis will use @NASASCaN ’s Near Space Network and Deep Space Network to communicate with mission control on Earth. Learn about Artemis' network support here: https://t.co/yFgOWteUQu pic.twitter.com/ZqbuqBtaVX — NASA's Near Space Network (@NearSpaceNet) August 24, 2022

Setting a Course for the Moon

Orion is about 100 miles above Earth and still accelerating at more than 17,500 mph, but will still need more power to reach the moon. Once in low-Earth orbit, its next key step is the trans-lunar injection (TLI) -- a maneuver that will propel it 280,000 miles beyond Earth and 40,000 miles beyond the moon. That's farther than any spacecraft capable of crewed flights has ever gone. The maneuver starts with a blast of 24,750 pounds of thrust from the upper part of the rocket that will allow Orion to be captured within the moon's gravity.

That rocket stage will separate and deploy 10 small CubeSat satellites to help study the moon or travel deeper into space before they are consumed during an orbit around the sun.

The spacecraft will be traveling toward the moon for the next few days.

Flight Day 10-15: Orbit Around the Moon

Orion has made it, carrying its cargo to lunar orbit. On Flight Day 11, Orion is set to make history. It is due to exceed the record distance set by Apollo 13 of 248,655 miles beyond Earth by about 30,000 more miles.

Flight Day 16-26: Return Trip to Earth and Splashdown

Orion begins its return trip to Earth. Orion is now scheduled for a tentative splashdown on Dec. 11. The spacecraft will be hurtling toward Earth at 24,000 mph before gently splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near California.

How can I follow the Artemis Mission?

You can follow the 26-day mission with NASA's Artemis Twitter account . NASA also will provide coverage on its YouTube channel . NASA is offering several other ways to track the mission in real-time .

Will Artemis 1 have a crew?

No, unless you're counting the three 'moonikins' NASA assigned to the mission -- and they are noteworthy . The mannequins will be in the same astronaut suit that will be worn by future Artemis crews and have sensors that measure vibration and space radiation. One of the 'moonikins' is named Moonikin Campos after Arturo Campos , who was a key figure in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. You can follow their adventures here in comic book-style.

Why is NASA going to the Moon?

The Artemis 1 mission is the first flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion, the stack of technology that will eventually send astronauts to the moon. Artemis II will send Orion and a crew farther than people have ever traveled from Earth. Artemis III is targeting the first crewed moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. The timeline for those missions depends largely on how things go with Artemis 1. The missions, named after the goddess of the moon and twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, are considered stepping stones to an eventual crewed mission to Mars.

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With the Artemis campaign, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.

We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.

We’re going.

WHY WE’RE GOING TO THE MOON

We’re going back to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers: the Artemis Generation. While maintaining American leadership in exploration, we will build a global alliance and explore deep space for the benefit of all.

Science & Discovery

With Artemis, we’re building on more than 50 years of exploration experience to reignite America’s passion for discovery.

Economic Opportunity

Artemis missions enable a growing lunar economy by fueling new industries, supporting job growth, and furthering the demand for a skilled workforce.

Inspiration for a New Generation

We will explore more of the Moon than ever before with our commercial and international partners. Along the way, we will engage and inspire new audiences – we are the Artemis Generation.

Why the Moon

The Artemis missions will build a community on the Moon, driving a new lunar economy and inspiring a new generation. Narrator Drew Barrymore and NASA team members explain why returning to the Moon is the natural next step in human exploration, and how the lessons learned from Artemis will pave the way to Mars and beyond.

OUR SUCCESS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD

HOW WE ARE GOING TO THE MOON

We are developing a long-term strategy for lunar exploration that will allow our robots and astronauts to explore more and conduct more science than ever before.

Exploration Systems

Orion Spacecraft

The NASA spacecraft that will carry astronauts from Earth to lunar orbit and back.

Space Launch System Rocket

The only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and cargo to the Moon on a single mission. Upon launch, the Space Launch System will be the most powerful rocket in the world.

Exploration Ground Systems

The structures on the ground necessary to support launch and recovery of returning astronauts.

Human Landing System

Built by American companies, human landing systems are the final mode of transportation that will take astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back to orbit.

The spaceship in lunar orbit where astronauts will transfer between Orion and the lander on regular Artemis missions. Gateway will remain in orbit for more than a decade, providing a place to live and work, and supporting long-term science and human exploration on and around the Moon.

Surface Mobility

NASA is develop next-generation spacesuits, human-rated rovers, and spacewalking support systems to help astronauts traverse the lunar surface.

This is the Artemis Generation.

We go to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers: the Artemis Generation.

Artemis I was the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration at the Moon and future missions to Mars.

Four astronauts will fly around the Moon to test NASA's foundational human deep space exploration capabilities, the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, for the first time with crew.

Artemis III: NASA’s First Human Mission to the Lunar South Pole

Humans have always been drawn to explore, discover, and learn as much as we can about the world—and worlds—around us.…

NASA’s Artemis IV: Building First Lunar Space Station

NASA and its partners are developing the foundational systems needed for long-term exploration at the Moon for the benefit of…

Living and Working at the Moon

As Artemis missions progress, NASA and its partners will continue to send exploration elements to the surface. Rovers will expand the exploration range and increase science return. Habitation elements will allow crews to stay on the surface for longer periods of time.

Join Artemis

Make,  launch,  teach,  compete  and  learn. Find your favorite way to be part of the Artemis mission.

How long does it take to travel to the Moon?

Last Updated: November 23, 2022

Humans have always been fascinated by the prospect of visiting the Moon – our closest celestial neighbor, and the first stepping stone in the exploration of the solar system. Even with the use of modern technology and advanced propulsion systems, reaching the Moon remains a very difficult and very expensive endeavour.

So how long does it take to get to the Moon? The short answer is that it takes an average of 3 days to reach the Moon. 

Between 1969 and 1972, NASA sent 18 astronauts to the Moon as part of the Apollo space program . In addition, five nations and two political unions have successfully landed unmanned spacecraft on the lunar surface or placed them into lunar orbit.

The last Moon landing occurred almost 40 years ago! In fact, humans have not set foot on the lunar ground since December 14, 1972. That being said, NASA’s new “Artemis” mission is generating a great deal of public interest. The next Moon landing is scheduled for 2024!

So, what are the factors that can influence the duration of this incredible journey? Let’s dive in! Or should I say, let’s take off?

Cargo load is one of the many factors that can influence the time it takes to travel to the Moon.

Does the Moon's orbit affect the time it takes to get there?

We know that the Moon is located at an average distance of 238,855 miles from Earth. However, the trajectory of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical, with one side closer to the Earth than the other and an average eccentricity of 0.0549.

Since its path is not perfectly circular, there is a moment when the Moon is as close as possible to the Earth (lunar perigee) at 221,500 miles, and another moment when it is as far away as possible (lunar apogee) at 252,700 miles.

While the distance between the Moon and Earth is an important factor to consider when planning a spacecraft’s trajectory, other considerations come into play regarding the duration of the flight to the Moon.

Related reading : How Far Away is The Moon From Earth Right Now?

The duration of a journey to the Moon varies according to the following factors:

• The chosen itinerary;
• The selected type of propulsion system ;
• The presence or the absence of crew members aboard the spacecraft;
• Whether the spacecraft is scheduled to land on the surface, orbit around the Moon, or just fly by the Moon while heading towards a more distant target.

For example, if the space probe “New Horizons” was travelling at its maximum speed of 36,400 mph while the Moon is at perigee (221,500 miles), the probe would reach the Moon in only 6 hours and 15 minutes! If the Moon was at apogee (252,700 miles), the space probe would take about 6 hours and 50 minutes to pass by the Moon.

How long does it take to fly a manned spacecraft to the moon?

The most popular lunar mission is undoubtedly Apollo 11, during which the astronauts Neil Amstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins travelled to the Moon for the first time. After blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, the astronauts landed on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, and the journey took 75 hours and 49 minutes. 

To date, the Apollo 8 mission still holds the record for the shortest travel time ever achieved by a spacecraft carrying astronauts on board (69 hours et 8 minutes). In total, NASA conducted 6 lunar landings during the Apollo program.

Although other countries have conducted orbital placements as well as landings of unmanned spacecraft, the United States remains to this day the only country to have successfully landed astronauts on the Lunar surface.

As you can see in the table below, the time taken to reach the Moon is different for each Apollo mission. There are several explanations for this:

• The purpose of some missions was only to orbit the Moon rather than land on it.
• NASA was constantly researching and testing for the best possible trajectory.
• Some missions involved transporting very heavy equipment, such as the lunar rover.

The Apollo 12 mission arrived on the Moon after a voyage that took three and a half days.

How long does it take to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon?

Even for unmanned space probes, there is no such thing as a consistent travel time… It all depends on whether the spacecraft is just passing by the Moon, whether it is intended to be placed into orbit or to land on the surface. New Horizons holds the record for the shortest trip to the Moon: 8 hours and 35 minutes! 

The record for the longest journey to the Moon is held by SMART-1, a space probe engineered by the European Space Agency: it took a full year to reach the Moon! Although SMART-1 is the slowest spacecraft to ever reach the Moon, it remains the most fuel-efficient spacecraft in history.

How long did it take Artemis 1 to reach the Moon?

Artemis 1 was launched on November 16 2022, at 6:47 am GMT (1:47 EST). This flight was the first in a series of missions planned by NASA as part of its Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024. The launch vehicle used for the mission was the SLS (Space Launch System), carrying the Orion spacecraft into space.

After a relatively smooth journey, Orion officially entered lunar orbit on November 21, at 7:57 am ET (12:57 UTC). In total, Artemis took 5 days, 1 hour, and 10 minutes to travel from Earth to the Moon. It is not the quickest flight we’ve seen, but the main goals were:

• Test the flight systems
• Test the new technology that was developed for the mission
• Provide data on how the SLS performed, as well as insights into the health of Orion’s systems and overall performance.
• Prepare for crewed missions starting next year.

Related Article: How Much of Space Have We Explored So Far?

In summary, the time it takes to reach the Moon is about 3 days on average for manned spacecraft. On the other hand, for unmanned spacecraft, the travel time can vary considerably depending on the mission objectives. They usually reach their destination much faster.

I eagerly look forward to the launch of the next lunar mission scheduled for 2024.  Mankind will return to the lunar surface for the first time in 40 years! And this time, a woman will be part of the crew! How amazing!

Is it possible that 40 years of technological progress will significantly reduce the time it takes to reach the Moon? Perhaps the new private space companies, such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, will beat all previous records? We’ll find out the answer in a few years…!

Written by Tom Urbain

I’ve been fascinated by space and astronomy from a very young age. When I’m not watching space-themed documentaries, movies or TV series, I spend most of my free time in my backyard admiring the planets and galaxies with my telescope.

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This moon-related story is part of our collection of astronomy articles . If this piece sparked your interest, you’re sure to enjoy the fascinating insights offered in our subsequent articles.

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How Long Does It Take To Get To The Moon?

Back in 2008 , Richard Branson outlined his vision for Virgin Galactic’s future. Once tourists are taken into Earth orbit, it seems possible that space hotels could be developed for longer stop-overs in space. He then went on to mention that short “sight-seeing” tours to the Moon could be started from these ultimate hotels. If we are to make travel to the Moon routine enough to send tourists there, the trip would need to be as short as possible.

So how long is the commute from the Earth to the Moon anyway? Human beings and machines have made that trip on several occasions. And while some took a very long time, others were astonishingly fast. Let’s review the various missions and methods, and see which offers the most efficient and least time-consuming means of transit.

Many missions have arrived in lunar orbit and landed on the lunar surface, but the means of getting there are widely varying. Whether a mission uses a rocket to blast its way there, or a subtle ion engine to slowly edge its payload closer, we have many options open to us when we travel to the Moon in the future. To this end, I’ll give a quick rundown from slowest to fastest flights to Earth’s natural satellite 380,000 km away.

Unmanned Missions:

The slowest mission to fly to the Moon was actually one of the most advanced technologies to be sent into space. The ESA’s  SMART-1 lunar probe was launched on September 27th, 2003 and used a revolutionary ion engine to propel it to the Moon. SMART-1 slowly spiraled out from the Earth to arrive at its destination one year, one month and two weeks later on November 11th, 2004.

SMART-1 may have been slow, but it was by far the most fuel efficient. The craft used only 82 kg of xenon propellant for the entire mission (ending with a lunar impact in 2006). The SMART-1 mission is an oddity as it is by far the longest mission to the Moon, the rest of the missions took a matter of days to reach lunar orbit.

China’s Chang’e-1 mission was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on October 24th 2007 but sat in Earth orbit til October 31st when it began its transit to the Moon and arrived in lunar orbit on November 5th. The mission therefore took five days to cover the distance, using its rocket boosters. This was followed up by the Chang’e 2 orbiter, which launched on Oct 1st 2010 and arrived in lunar orbit within 4 days and 16 hours .

More recently, Chang’e 3 probe and lander launched on Dec. 1st, 2013 at 17:30 UTC and arrived in Lunar orbit on December 6th at 9:53 UTC. It was therefore the fastest of the Chang’e missions, taking 4 days, 12 hours, and 23 minutes to reach the Moon before deplyoing its lander to the lunar surface.

However, it was the first-even unmanned mission to the Moon that was the fastest. This mission was known as the Soviet Luna 1 probe, which completed a flyby of the Moon in 1959. This basic, but pioneering probe was launched on January 2nd and flew past the Moon by a few thousand kilometers on January 4th. It only took 36 hours to make the trip, therefore traveling an average speed of 10,500 km/hr.

Manned Missions:

The Apollo missions, which were the only manned Lunar mission, were fairly quick in reaching the Moon. Naturally, it was the Apollo 11 mission, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the Moon, that made the greatest headlines. This mission began on July 16th, 1969, where a Saturn V multi-stage rocket took the astronauts from Kennedy Space Center into orbit.

They reached lunar orbit after only 51 hours and 49 minutes in space, arriving on July 19th, 1969. The famous “One small step for man…” speech would not take place until July 21st, roughly 109 hours and 42 minutes into the mission. After dusting off from the Lunar surface, the Lunar Module spent another 2 days, 22 hours and 56 minutes getting back to Earth. So in addition to be the first manned mission, Apollo 11 was also the fastest trip to the Moon where astronauts were involved.

Fastest Mission to Date:

By far, the fastest mission to fly past the Moon was NASA’s  New Horizons Pluto mission. This mission had a speedy launch, with its Atlas V rocket accelerating it to a a speed of about 16.26 km per second (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph). At this rate, it only took 8 hours and 35 minutes for it to get to the Moon from Earth. Quite a good start for this probe, which was on its way to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt at the time.

Although this is impressive, it’s worth keeping in mind that New Horizons was not slowing down to enter lunar orbit (as was the case all of the manned and unmanned mission to the Moon mentioned above). Hence, it was probably still accelerating long after it had placed the Moon in its rear view mirror (assuming it had one).

Mission concepts like the Space Launch System and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) will also come into play in the near future. On December 5th, 2014, an unmanned test of the Orion capsule took place, officially known as Exploration Flight Test 1 . Having launched atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket, the capsule reached Low Earth Orbit, achieved two orbits of the Earth, and then splashed down again 4.5 hours later.

During the course of the flight, EFT-1 reached speeds of up to 8.9 km/s (32,187 km/h; 20,000 mph). At this velocity, an Orion mission could conceivably make it to the Moon (at an average distance of 384,400 km) in nearly 12 hours. Obviously, adjustments will have to be made for weight (since it will need a crew), and deceleration. But still, that’s not a bad framework for a tourist flight.

So, when space tourism begins mounting sight-seeing tours or missions to the Moon, they will have a few options. They could offer long cruises, gently gliding to the Moon using ion engines to slowly let the tourists take in the views. Or they could opt for the exhilarating rocket ride of a lifetime, blasting tourists off into space and whipping them back in just a day or two. Hard to say which one people would prefer, but surely there are many who would pay handsomely for the opportunity.

We Have written many interesting articles about the Moon here at Universe Today. Here’s Who Were The First Men On The Moon? , How Many People Have Walked On The Moon? , What Is The Distance To The Moon? , and You Could Fit All The Planets Between The Earth And The Moon .

For more information, be sure to check out NASA’s page on The Earth’s Moon and Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute

Original publication date April 10, 2008

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34 Replies to “How Long Does It Take To Get To The Moon?”

Ian: I think I’d go for the quicker ride using chemical propulsion rather than the Ion propulsion option. While Ion propulsion would be far more fuel-efficient and several times faster than chemical propulsion — “in the long run” (it takes a lot of time to build up acceleration) — the tourist(s) onboard would die of boredom or old age 🙂 The additional mass of each tourist would only hinder the delay-time for an appreciable thrust to build up in the spacecraft, and having gained that thrust, how, afterwards does one slow it down again — the Ion propulsion system just wouldn’t be strong or quick enough for decelleration requirements. A chemical propulsion system, on the other hand, would do, however, that means adding fuel onboard which increases the mass again, and means a longer period to build up acceleration. A combination of the two (Ion and Chemical) is inevitably the answer down the line, however, these would probably be more applicable for trips to Mars and other planets/moon in our Solar System.

Joel: This sounds like the ideal time-requirement for the tourist(s) involved, and I don’t think the health problems associated with radiation risks…etc., would come into play if you stuck to your overall trip time-period as stated. Don’t know if I would survive those G’s you mention, however, please put me down for a trip when it eventually gets going (just mention my name to Richard — he’ll understand :-)) John — http://www.moonposter.ie Moon News — http://www.moonposter.ie/news.htm Moon Missions — http://www.moonposter.ie/missions.htm (Kaguya, Chang’e-1, Chandrayaan-1, LRO, GRAIL & LADEE, LunaGlob, LEO, MoonLITE)

What about more powerful ION drives? We could use a Earth-orbit space laser to power the drive.

What about photonic drives?

In 2006 “Dr. Young Bae of the Bae Institute first demonstrated his Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT) with an amplification factor of 3,000”

The paper says ~1mN per 10 watts and no reaction mass required.

http://baeinstitute.com/downloads/STAIF_2006_YK_Bae_FF_Paper.pdf

On paper, presuming slightly higher than a 300 kilometer orbit, with as low as possible an eccentricity and as near to originating in a low earth orbit well aligned with the plain of the moon’s orbit – our hypothetical Virgin Lunar spacecraft could, in theory, accelerate from 7330 meters per second to around 18,500 meters per second in around eleven minutes, while pulling from 1.8 to a high of 2.5 gees, arriving in the lunar vicinity in from 6.9 to 7.5 hours, depending on whether the destination was at it’s highest or lowest point in distance from Earth.

Of necessity, this TLI would result in anything but a free-return trajectory, of course, and breaking to slow for lunar orbital insertion would require just as rough and an even more sustained burn that would begin while while still nearly ten lunar radii distant from the closest passage over the 174 to 179 meridian – and end minutes before Loss of Signal, and in lunar orbit watching, an earthset. in a retrograde orbit falling around the moon’s farside.

Presuming one had enough fuel and very few and very hardy passengers, and were not attempting a landing, the return trip could be executed in a longer period after a shorter burn only half of which would still be underway at earthrise – mainly because it would originate from an orbital speed around the moon of ~1.6 kilometers per second and because my orbital mechanic skills breaks down quite a bit at this point … causing the margin of error to require a range of 11.9 to well over 24 plus hours to safely return to lunar orbit.

Either way, the tolerances clearly exceed the comfort and fuel requirements of any craft ever constructed, but, hey, the exposure to Van Allen radiation, solar protons and cosmic rays would certainly be reduced!

Nevertheless, one could hardly call such highly hyperbolic moonstorming “safe!”

Still, it’s interesting to consider the possibility of arriving at the moon in less time than many trans-Atlantic flights. It would be a the ride of a lifetime.

On second though, scratch that lunar meridian number. That is, of course, not correct. And forgive the typos. In an emergency situation requiring medical help for lunar missions, I think we’ll continue our work with telemedicine and biorobotics. LOL.

But won’t both ‘Ion’ and ‘Photonic’ drives as means of propulsion systems still require build-up times that the tourist(s) onboard the craft will have to wait for. There’s no doubt in the technology that both systems (and other systems like solar sails etc.,) produce propulsion, however, their use for getting the tourist(s) onboard to the Moon in any reasonable time is just too long, isn’t it? Those onboard would, therefore, end up waiting and waiting for any significant thrust to get moving close to the necessary speeds required, and by that time their patience would have run out. I looked at that paper you suggested and it’s obvious the research is based around micro, pico and nano satellites flying in formation (forgive me if I don’t fully understand their findings as I’m not an expert), but the propulsions quoted are for satellites weighing in from 10 – 100 kg. At minimum, spacecrafts [with toursist(s)] going to the Moon currently weigh in at their tonnage, and if they were to have an independent, proposed Ion and Photonic propulsion system onboard, these systems would have to be huge again for any appreciable output in light source requirements to get them moving, wouldn’t they? That means additional mass, which means build-up times are longer again, which means bored-to-death (dead) tourist(s) that never even get close to the Moon in sutiable times that they can endure.

John — http://www.moonposter.ie Moon News — http://www.moonposter.ie/news.htm Moon Missions — http://www.moonposter.ie/missions.htm (Kaguya, Chang’e-1, Chandrayaan-1, LRO, GRAIL & LADEE, LunaGlob, LEO, MoonLITE)

The ion slow boat to lunar absorption will become a religious pilgrimage.

Why not just go the traditional 2-3 day route and have photgrahic equipment on board to be able to “sight see” the cosmos while enroute?? There are plenty of things worth seeing in our own galaxie that could be easily glimpsed while on the way. Modern astronomy is incredible! Personally I could never be “bored” or even SLEEP on a three day trip to the moon. By the time I was done looking at Earth, the next day would be spent looking at the moon and visa versa. You would never see the same spot for very long anyway or see “it all”. We truely have the attention spans of a gnat when we talk of being “bored” on a 2-3 day trip to the moon! We should be ashamed of that American trait !!!!!

Fraser and Ian, thanks for this insightful article, but it would be nice if someone were to suggest a practical schedule for getting to the moon. Traveling at more than 1.25 g is probably not a good idea for overweight, smoker tourists and traveling ad less than .75 g might also have its risks, so what if we traveled somewhere inbetween, and what if we varied the length of acceleration.

Of course, the best and fastest way to get to the moon would be to simply build very powerful and long range transporter beams (grin)

If we could build a spaceship capable of 1G constant acceleration / deceleration for extended periods of time, then (if my calculations are correct) we could travel in comfort from Earth to the Moon in about 3.5 hours. One G accleration to the midway point takes about 1.75 hours, followed by 1G deceleration to reach the moon). This assumes we could turn off the engine and rotate the ship quickly at the midway point, with the passengers being weightless then.

thats gonna be a lot of burnt up fuel that will be just ‘gone’. I think we need use use mini nuclear power or something new.

This type of trip would be a dream and fantastic to anyone old enough to be a kid in the early 70s. I know that I have always wanted to go into space, orbiting the moon would be even that much better.

One has to wonder how quickly the price for such travel could become realistic and of course once the excitement in lunar orbits wears off for the populace in general I am sure an actual lunar landing and bouncing around on the moon would be one of the greatest adventures anyone could dream to go on.

I have to agree with Gudenboink, there is no way that anyone could get bored on a trip like this, anyone that could get bored on this grand adventure would not be interested in going in the first place.

I think that if they were to bill it as a two week “cruise” to the moon, it would work out the best. People spend weeks at sea on these cruise ships with nothing but the big blue to see- but there are other sources of entertainment during their trip.

Also, using a dedicated ship in space to travel to the moon seems to be the most practical. Launch into space in a rocket, dock with the “cruise ship” where you offload the fuel and other supplies, and then you are on your way. Once you return, you dock again with another ship bringing up passengers, and they take down those that are returning. This mode seems the most cost effective, as you are not launching the mass of the lunar transport vehicle, just the payload.

just my .02

Baggage allowance?

Overweight baggage fees?

Would it be cheaper for lighter folk, excellent excuse to lose some pounds

Fitness Guy & Gudenboink:

On boredom …etc. I was really talking in the context of using an Ion and Photonic driven spacecraft — it could take upto several weeks and months (years???) to get you and others to the Moon using these systems.

But as for the three-day trip to the Moon…I’d have one eye on the receding Earth below, the other eye on the expanding Moon above, and I difinitely wouldn’t be bored (or boring, as I may have come across in my comments re: Ion/Photonic context…SORRY!).

John — http://www.moonposter.ie

An Apollo 8 or 10 free-return trajectory will be the preferred option as high-speed means tons more propellant and, unless you’re landing, not a lot of loitering time near the Moon.

The whole subject of tourist travel in space is moonshine until there is a space elevator to reduce the cost of moving mass to earth orbit by orders of magnitude.

“…[New Horizons] was probably still accelerating as the Moon was a dot in its rear view window”.

Bzzt wrong. The initial boost only lasted a few minutes. New horizons only accelerated once once it passed the moon and that was the Jupiter gravity assist.

To ioresult:

Hehe, got me there. Damn! (But you can see by my uncertainty when I say *probably*.) Thanks for the info, good to know. Wow, that’s one hell of a boost!

Cheers, Ian

Si en el futuro el viaje a la Luna será algo tan rutinario como para enviar turistas, el viaje debería ser lo más corto posible. ¿Pero cuánto tarda un viaje a la Luna? Hombres y máquinas ya han hecho ese viaje, algunos tomaron mucho tiempo y otros fueron increíblemente veloces. […] Ian O’Neill para Universe Today

I personally think this is just a ploy to gain money and raise attention however my heart says I hope it is true

The sooner we start space touring and colonization the better. Humanity needs to span outwards to survive.

its rubbish

I have to agree with Richard Branson. Why not build hotels in space? That way the tourists can travel to the space hotel in a standard rocket (where they can experience the thrill of high g-forces). Thenonce they get to the space hotel, wait a few hours or days experiencing weightlessness, then take a shuttle to the Moon, using the Earth’s gravity as a slingshot effect to reduce fuel costs, then voila, the moon! On the return trip back to the space hotel, they can use the Moon’s gravity in a similar slingshot effect to get back to Earth. Of course, only the filthy rich tourists will help pay for the luxury of going to the Moon, while the rest of us cretins will grumble and complain, at least in the beginning. Someday going to the Moon will be comparitively expensive as having a car, or a personal computer. Does anyone remember how expensive they were when they first came out???? 😀

Rocket Maaaaaan! It would be cool to go up there.

Are humanity close to build a space ship capable of 1G constant acceleration as Phil Jackson says?

I hope Branson’s Lunar Service is better than Virgin Media Broadband and Virgin Trains, which are appalling – otherwise it is a belt ‘n’ braces job.

this is some verry interesting information. how long would this even take?

For fuel cost’s sake, because I’m assuming that rocket fuel costs quite a bit, why not consider an H2O electrolysis based rocket? Have a huge water tank, a small nuclear reactor onboard (or some other high energy production device), then split the water into HHO and burn it for the fuel. It might make hydrolygists upset if a considerable amount of Earth’s water is taken out of our atmosphere never to be recollected, but humans use now and worry later right?

i what to no how long does it take to get to the moon fast

can i get a dvd of the solar for my home?

What is the average time to get to the moon?? PLease I really want to know…

I can’t wait until all of this becomes a reality!!!

it is sooooooooooooo amazing how fast you can get to the moon!

Want to take a ride to the moon! well am Gone…… i´ll be back in 17.10hrs

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Among the reasons a uniform lunar time zone is needed is because the moon's weaker gravity makes time appear to pass more quickly there than on Earth.

By Don Jacobson, UPI

Published Sep 13, 2024 8:41 AM PDT | Updated Sep 13, 2024 8:41 AM PDT

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NASA's Space Communication and Navigation program has been put in charge of an effort to establish a lunar time standard as human explorers prepare to return to the Earth's satellite. (Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo)

Sept. 12 (UPI) -- NASA said Thursday its Space Communication and Navigation program is taking the lead on an effort to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time standard as humans prepare to return to the moon.

The program, also known as SCaN, will coordinate with various stakeholders on a timekeeping effort to "enable a future lunar ecosystem" that could also be extended to Mars and other locations in solar system, NASA officials said in  a blog post .

The need for a coordinated time standard on the moon and elsewhere in space will become increasing important as NASA's Artemis campaign prepares to establish a sustained presence on and around Earth's satellite and as the commercial space industry grows.

With more nations are active at the moon, there is a greater need for time standardization, said Ben Ashman of the SCaN program.

"A shared definition of time is an important part of safe, resilient, and sustainable operations," he said.

The effort is coming after the Biden administration in April issued  a directive  for the establishment of a Coordinated Lunar Time standard, under which NASA was tasked with providing a finalized strategy to the White House for implementation no later than Dec. 31, 2026.

Among the reasons a uniform lunar time zone is needed is because the moon's weaker gravity makes time appear to pass more quickly there than on Earth. As first predicted by  Albert Einstein  and his  theory of special relativity , time is relative to the observer -- atomic clocks on the lunar surface would tick faster than those on Earth by about 56 microseconds per day.

While the difference is small its implications are huge for human space travel -- the lag could disrupt the precise timing needed for important activities like spacecraft landings and communicating with Earth.

Thus, under a plan developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a new master "Moon time" has been formulated to serve as the timekeeping reference specifically for the entire lunar surface, similar to how Coordinated Universal Time functions on Earth.

"It's like having the entire moon synchronized to one 'time zone' adjusted for the moon's gravity, rather than having clocks gradually drift out of sync with Earth's time," NIST physicist Bijunath Patla  said last month .

The establishment of a coordinated lunar time is also essential for another reason -- the building of a lunar geo-positioning, or GPS, system which will be crucial for executing precise navigation and positioning of human activity on the moon.

If such as system were built using a series of precise atomic clocks placed in lunar orbit, it would enable more accurate landings and more efficient hunting for lunar resources, researchers say.

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The Polaris Dawn spacewalk is SpaceX’s ‘risky adventure’

Geoff Brumfiel

Polaris Dawn lifts off from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Tuesday morning. The crew is set to conduct the first private spacewalk ever in a matter of days. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

A SpaceX rocket lifted off early Tuesday morning carrying four astronauts who hope to conduct the world’s first commercial spacewalk . The launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida marks the beginning of one of SpaceX’s highest-stakes missions yet .

Civilian Polaris Dawn spacewalk mission is set to make history next week

If all goes as expected, in a matter of days, Internet entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis will be the first private astronauts to exit their spacecraft to float above the Earth in spacesuits. They’ll be treated to a majestic view of the planet that’s only been seen by professional astronauts working on official missions from their space agencies.

But experts warn there’s plenty that could go wrong. Spacewalking carries unique risks compared to traveling inside a capsule or visiting the International Space Station. This mission will use several components that have never been tested in space before, including the spacesuits themselves. And it will require skill and cool-headed thinking from the astronauts involved, three of whom have never been to space at all.

Conducting a spacewalk like this is a “risky adventure,” acknowledges Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, who previously headed NASA’s human spaceflight operations.

NASA will bring stranded astronauts back on SpaceX — not Boeing's Starliner

But he insists that the company is ready: “We’re going to do it as safely as we can, and we’ve got the right protocols and we’ve done the right testing to get ready to go,” Gerstenmaier told reporters at a press briefing last month .

A giant leap, for a price

The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, is a giant leap for commercial space travel. To date, most space tourists have either taken a brief suborbital journey that provides a few moments of weightlessness, or (for significantly more money) traveled to the International Space Station. Isaacman spent a few days in 2021 orbiting earth in a SpaceX capsule.

From left, Scott Poteet, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis, and Jared Isaacman are set to conduct the first private spacewalk. Gillis and Isaacman will exit their Dragon capsule float above the earth in new spacesuits from the commercial spaceflight company SpaceX. John Kraus/Polaris Program hide caption

He’s now paid an undisclosed sum of money for this mission, which is the first of three scheduled as part of the Polaris program. Isaacman had floated the idea of the second mission being used to service the Hubble Space telescope, but NASA recently said the agency would not pursue it at this time because they’re not sure it’s worth the risks.

These are the 4 astronauts who'll take a trip around the moon next year

On this mission, all four astronauts will don new SpaceX spacesuits before purging the air from their Dragon capsule. Isaacman, the mission commander, and Gillis will then open the hatch and float briefly out of the capsule, connected by umbilical cords that will supply them with oxygen. The mission’s pilot, Scott Poteet, and medical officer and SpaceX employee Anna Menon will remain inside the capsule.

The allure of doing a spacewalk is clear. The view is stunning, says Luca Parmitano, an astronaut for the European Space Agency who has conducted six spacewalks.

“It’s almost as if time stops for a second, or your heart stops for a second, it’s just so beautiful,” he says.

But Parmitano says that spacewalking is also physically and mentally challenging. The suits are pressurized, making them stiff and inflexible.

"At one point during the spacewalk, you’re going to be hot, you’re going to be cold, your hands are going to hurt,” he says. “You have to embrace the suck.”

And there’s a lot that can go wrong. During a spacewalk outside the International Space Station in 2013, Parmitano’s helmet began filling with water from his spacesuit’s cooling system. In zero G, the capillary pressure caused the water to stick to his skin and begin creeping around his head.

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“It covered my eyes, it covered my ears, it went inside my nose,” Parmitano recalls. He was unable to communicate because his radio no longer worked. “I was on my own, isolated. I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t talk.”

Spacewalks (known in the business as Extravehicular Activities, or EVAs), have always been among the most dangerous parts of space travel. During the first American spacewalks carried out during the Gemini program of the 1960s, crew members frequently experienced problems with their suits, according to Emily Margolis, a curator of contemporary spaceflight at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

“Of the nine EVAs that took place during project Gemini, three of them actually ended early due to concerns over health and safety,” Margolis says.

For example on Gemini 9, astronaut Gene Cernan was supposed to test a kind of rocket pack to help astronauts move around in space. His suit included a metallic coating to protect him from the exhaust of the rocket pack, but the coating made it far harder to move.

In this image taken from NASA video Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano (lower right) holds a bundle of new pumps for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer outside the International Space Station on Dec. 2, 2019. AP/NASA hide caption

One of the paradoxes of spacewalking is that, although space is cold, the lack of atmosphere around the suit can actually cause heat to build up inside. As Cernan struggled to move, he ended up overexerting himself.

“He started to sweat profusely and the moisture in the suit started to fog his vizor,” Margolis says. With his visibility severely impaired, his crewmate cut the EVA short and brought him back inside.

When Cernan returned to Earth, Margolis says, it was determined he’d lost 13 pounds over the mission. “It’s believed that most of that was water weight from the amount that he was sweating during this EVA,” she says.

Spacewalks have become more routine since then, but they remain risky, according to Jonathan Clark, a physician at Baylor College of Medicine who has consulted for both NASA and SpaceX on spacesuits. By his count, around one in five spacewalks encounter some sort of problem.

“Sometimes you can adapt to it, but a lot of times you’ve got to stop the EVA and come back in,” he says.

In the case of Luca Parmitano, the astronaut whose helmet began filling with water, he had little choice but to cut the spacewalk short. Because he couldn’t see, he had to work his way back to the airlock from memory. Eventually fellow spacewalker Chris Cassidy helped him get back inside and close the hatch.

A spacewalk has been canceled after a leak was discovered on a Soyuz capsule

“I don’t take any specific credit for keeping my cool because I’d been trained my whole adult life to perform in relatively risky situations,” says Parmitano, who is also a colonel and test pilot in the Italian Air Force.

New challenges

Clark notes that the Polaris Dawn crew has had far less experience. Of the four crewmembers, only Isaacman has actually been to space.

Beyond that, “none of the crew has done an actual spacewalk before,” he says. “It’s going to be a first for everybody.”

The crew will be wearing new SpaceX suits that in some ways resemble those worn by earlier generations of astronauts. They will be fed oxygen by an umbilical cord connected to the spacecraft, and the suits themselves will be passively cooled with air from the umbilical. That means there’s no chance of a water leak, like what happened to Parmitano, but overheating similar to the Gemini missions could become an issue, as could fogging of the astronaut’s visors.

Moreover, the Dragon Capsule itself will have to continue to operate smoothly under vacuum. Without air circulating, the capsule’s onboard computers will have a harder time keeping cool.

“The challenges are certainly there,” Clark says.

Boeing faces hard questions about Starliner and its future in space

But newbies can do tough things in space. Sian Proctor was the pilot of Isaacman’s first mission to orbit the earth in 2021. Until six months before launch, she’d never flown a rocket.

“I basically went from being a geoscience professor to being a mission pilot of a spacecraft,” she says.

Proctor says SpaceX got her ready. In fact, Sarah Gillis helped train her for her mission. Another member of this latest crew, Scott Poteet, was the mission director for her launch.

While Proctor’s brief flight took only six months to prepare for, this latest mission has been in the works for more than two years, allowing for much more training.

Proctor says, If anyone can carry out the first commercial spacewalk, it’s this team.

“The crew is amazing,” she says. “They are so competent at what they do.”

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Splashdown! NASA's Artemis 1 Orion capsule lands in Pacific to end epic moon mission

Orion landed safely off the coast of Mexico's Baja Peninsula at 12:40 p.m. EST on Sunday (Dec. 11).

The first mission of NASA's Artemis moon program is in the books.

An uncrewed Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California this afternoon (Dec. 11), bringing a successful end to NASA's historic Artemis 1 moon mission after a 1.4 million-mile (2.3 million kilometers) flight. The splashdown occurred 50 years to the day of NASA's Apollo 17 moon landing, the last astronaut mission to touch down on the lunar surface.

"Splashdown! From Tranquility Base to Taurus-Littrow to the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the latest chapter of NASA's journey to the moon comes to a close: Orion back on Earth," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during the agency's livestream of the event on Sunday. (Tranquility Base and Taurus-Littrow were the landing sites of Apollo 11 and Apollo 17, the first and final Apollo moon landing missions, respectively.) 

Artemis 1 was a shakeout cruise for Orion, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and their associated ground systems. Further analyses await, but early indications are that all of this gear passed the test with flying colors — meaning NASA can likely start gearing up for the first crewed Artemis flight, a round-the-moon effort in 2024.

Related: 10 greatest images from NASA's Artemis 1 mission More: NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission: Live updates

A delayed but picture-perfect launch

NASA originally tried to launch Artemis 1 in late August, but several technical glitches, including a leak of liquid hydrogen propellant, pushed things back a month. 

And then Mother Nature intervened. In late September, the Artemis 1 team rolled the SLS and Orion off Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida to shelter from Hurricane Ian . The Artemis 1 stack stayed inside KSC's huge Vehicle Assembly Building for more than a month, getting some upgrade and repair work done during that stretch.

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Team members rolled the rocket and capsule back out to the pad on Nov. 4, seemingly after the end of hurricane season. However, another big storm slammed into the Space Coast on Nov. 10 — Nicole, which hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane but quickly weakened to a tropical storm.

SLS and Orion weathered Nicole on the launch pad , and did so in good shape; inspections soon revealed that both vehicles were ready for liftoff . That launch — the first ever for the SLS and the second for Orion, which flew to Earth orbit briefly in December 2014 — occurred on Nov. 16 , and it was a sight to behold.

The SLS sent Orion aloft exactly as planned. The huge rocket generated 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, making it the most powerful launcher ever to fly successfully. 

"The first launch of the Space Launch System rocket was simply eye-watering," Artemis 1 mission manager Mike Sarafin  said in a statement on Nov. 30. In photos: Artemis 1 launch: Amazing views of NASA's moon rocket debut 

Orion hits its marks

Orion experienced a few hiccups during flight. Shortly after liftoff, for example, the capsule's navigating star trackers returned anomalous readings, a problem that the team soon traced to "dazzling" by Orion's thrusters. Overall, however, the capsule performed well during its debut journey beyond Earth orbit, checking off milestone after milestone as planned.

On Nov. 25, the capsule arrived in distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the moon , a highly elliptical path that took Orion 40,000 miles (64,000 km) from the lunar surface at its most distant point.

On Nov. 26, the spacecraft got farther from Earth than any other spacecraft designed to carry humans, breaking the old record of 248,655 miles (400,171 km) set in 1970 by the  Apollo 13  command module. Two days later, Orion reached its maximum distance from its home planet, extending the record to 268,563 miles (432,210 km).

Orion left the lunar DRO on Dec. 1, then headed for home with a 3.5-minute-long engine burn during a close flyby of the moon on Dec. 5. That long journey, and the 25.5-day-long Artemis 1 mission, finally came to an end on Sunday.

The timing was appropriate, coming 50 years to the day after Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt touched down on the moon. Cernan and Schmitt left the lunar surface on Dec. 14, 1972, and no humans have been back since.

Orion barreled into Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, far off the western coast of South America, at 12:20 p.m. EST (1720 GMT) on Sunday. When that happened, the spacecraft was going about 25,000 mph (40,000 kph), or 32 times the speed of sound. 

This tremendous speed generated huge amounts of friction, putting Orion's 16.5-foot-wide (5 meters) heat shield to the test. The heat shield, the biggest of its kind ever flown, endured temperatures around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800 degrees Celsius), or roughly half as hot as the surface of the sun .

Shortly after entering Earth's atmosphere , Orion left again, bouncing off the upper layers of air like a rock skipping off the surface of a pond. This "skip maneuver," which no human-rated spacecraft had ever performed before, allows the capsule to cover greater distances and land more precisely during reentry, NASA officials have said.

Orion's three main parachutes deployed at at 12:37 p.m. EST (1737 GMT), slowing the capsule's descent. The spacecraft splashed down right on schedule at 12:40 p.m. EST (1740 GMT), about 100 miles (160 km) off the west coast of the Baja Peninsula.

A U.S. Navy ship, the USS Portland, was waiting in the area. The Portland will haul Orion aboard and ferry it to port in San Diego, a journey that will take about a day, NASA officials have said. From there, Orion will travel to KSC for in-depth inspections and analysis.

"This is an extraordinary day," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told Navias shortly after splashdown. "It’s historic, because we are now going back into space — into deep space — with a new generation."

 —  NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft leaves moon's orbit to head home

 —  10 strange things NASA's Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft took to the moon

— Happy anniversary, Apollo 17! Final moonwalking mission launched 50 years ago today

Preparing for crewed flight

Provided none of the postflight analyses reveal any serious issues, NASA will be free to begin gearing up for the Artemis program 's first-ever crewed flight —  Artemis 2 , which is scheduled to launch astronauts around the moon in 2024.

It only gets more ambitious from there. The agency plans to land astronauts near the moon's south pole on Artemis 3 in 2025 or 2026, a mission that will employ SpaceX's huge new Starship vehicle as a lunar lander. Future Artemis missions will work to set up a research outpost in the south polar region, which is thought to be rich in water ice.

NASA also plans to build a small moon-orbiting space station called Gateway to support Artemis activities. The first elements of Gateway are expected to lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in late 2024.

Artemis is a big project — an effort to establish a long-term sustainable human presence on and around the moon, as opposed to the "flags and footprints" approach of Apollo . The successful completion of Artemis 1 allows NASA to start focusing on those bold next steps. 

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:05 p.m. EST to correctly attribute the splashdown quote to NASA spokesperson Rob Navias (rather than Derrol Nail) and to add a quote from agency chief Bill Nelson.

Mike Wall is the author of " Out There " (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall . Follow us on Twitter  @Spacedotcom or  Facebook .

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with  Space.com  and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn astronauts complete spacewalk: How it happened

The four-member civilian crew will return to Earth to cap a five-day trip after completing an experimental spacewalk.

The first-ever spacewalk by private civilians has been successfully attempted, with four passengers on board SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission being subjected to outer space conditions for about one hour.

The four-person crew will now start their journey back down to Earth on board the spacecraft, with a splashdown expected off the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday.

How did the spacewalk go?

The first-ever commercial spacewalk was delayed for about two and a half hours, with the spacewalk starting at about 10:50 GMT after the hatch of the spacecraft was opened.

Before heading out, the pressure inside the capsule was slowly altered as part of the “pre-breathing” process that prepares the astronauts’ bodies. When the hatch was opened, the spacecraft was travelling at an elliptical orbit of 736km (457 miles) above the surface of the Earth at a speed of more than 25,000km/h (at least 15,500mph).

As billionaire mission commander Jared Isaacman opened the hatch and stepped up to transmit the first view of the planet from outside, the SpaceX crew on Earth erupted into cheers. He began limb movements which he had memorised beforehand to test out mobility in outer space.

After a number of minutes with his body partially outside the hatch, the 41-year-old Isaacman withdrew and was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, who went through similar motions, turning side to side and flexing her limbs to see how the new spacesuit, designed to protect the crew from the harsh vacuum, would hold up.

They were the only ones to go through the hatch, secured by a 12-foot (3.6-metre) tether linked to the spacecraft. They used Skywalker, a hatch structure with hand-held mobility assistance hardware developed by the company, but neither fully exited the hatch.

The other two crew members, 50-year-old former United States Air Force commander Scott “Kidd” Poteet and 38-year-old SpaceX engineer and medical officer Anna Menon, stayed inside the Dragon capsule but were exposed to the vacuum and had their own mobility and transmission tasks to perform, along with supporting the other two members.

Orbital sunset from Dragon pic.twitter.com/maDHdiSxNH — Polaris (@PolarisProgram) September 12, 2024

None of the crew experienced severe symptoms, which can include acute motion sickness that can prove fatal in extreme cases due to pressure differences.

The crew also conducted dozens of experiments, including inter-satellite laser communication between the spacecraft and Space X’s Starlink satellite constellation.

What is SpaceX hoping to achieve?

After spending more than two years preparing and training for the physical and mental strain of the challenge, the astronauts’ bodies were finally exposed to outer space conditions on Thursday.

The overarching goal of the Polaris programme is to develop and test technologies that will allow SpaceX to progress towards its long-term goal of achieving travel to and establishing extraterrestrial settlements on other plants, especially Mars.

A major goal of the risky spacewalk was to test the company’s new Extravehicular Activity (EVA) astronaut suits which were designed and developed specifically for this mission over two years.

SpaceX wants to improve the design of the suits to accommodate a larger variety of future astronauts of different body types and ages at lower costs as private space travel is set to expand.

The SpaceX suits do not include a Primary Life Support System (PLSS), a set of support equipment worn like a backpack by astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) that allows them to float more freely through space and carry out more complex tasks outside the space station. The trimmed-down suit means that the crew received their life support (oxygen) via the long hoses that were attached to their spacecraft.

The company hopes to learn from the effects of conditions like high altitude and radiation exposure during the experimental mission.

The laser and satellite communications checks would allow for connectivity improvements in the future.

How significant is the Polaris Dawn mission?

The Polaris Dawn’s five-day trek into Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts, which began at about 1,000km (600 miles) above the Earth’s surface, kicked off at 09:23 GMT on Tuesday, after several weather delays had delayed the rocket’s takeoff by weeks.

The Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage booster, which had detached from the spacecraft after its launch, successfully landed minutes after launch on Tuesday on a SpaceX platform named Just Read The Instructions positioned in the Atlantic Ocean.

The platform is a modified barge that has been outfitted with equipment to safely receive Falcon boosters at sea after high-velocity missions because they cannot carry enough fuel to land at the site they were launched from.

Polaris Dawn has already made history, as it reached a peak altitude of at least 1,400 kilometres (870 miles), surpassing the record set by NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966 that reached 1,373km.

It has also been the farthest humans have travelled since the 1972 Apollo mission to the moon, and the farthest into space a woman has ever journeyed.

Dragon is performing the spacewalk in an elliptical orbit of ~190 x 700 km today, after reaching a max altitude of 1,408.1 km on day two of the mission and breaking the Earth-orbit record set by Gemini 11 over 50 years ago when that spacecraft reached 1,373 km — SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 12, 2024

Isaacman, the CEO and founder of credit card processing company Shift4, bought Polaris Dawn – at an undeclared price – as one of three space trips from SpaceX founder Elon Musk in 2022. This was shortly after Isaacman’s return from his first private flight with the company that raised money for a leading paediatric cancer hospital in the US.

Who else is currently in space?

According to NASA, there are currently 19 people on missions in Earth’s orbit, which is humanity’s all-time record. They include seven staff members on board the ISS, a three-person crew of the Soyuz mission heading for a crew swap at the ISS, three astronauts on board China’s Tiangong space station and two test pilots of the Boeing Starliner flight to the ISS who are temporarily stranded there and will return to Earth in early 2025.

According to some experts, the mission violates an article of the Outer Space Treaty signed by world powers in 1967 during the Cold War. The article stipulates that the activities of non-government entities in outer space must be authorised and supervised by a state party. Polaris Dawn is not a NASA mission, and it is not regulated by the US government.

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First Private Spacewalk in SpaceX Capsule Achieves New Milestone

Jared Isaacman, the billionaire leading the Polaris Dawn mission, and Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, exited and re-entered their spacecraft in a test of commercial space technologies.

Polaris Dawn Crew Completes First-Ever Private Spacewalk

Jared isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur, and spacex engineer sarah gillis successfully completed the first ever private spacewalk..

We can see our commander, Jared Isaacman, now turning the crank. The first views of the first-ever commercial spacewalk. Commander Jared Isaacman now emerging from — It’s super exciting to see this. Our fellow SpaceXer, Sarah Gillis, now about to make her spacewalk. Really cool to see one of our own out there. That’s awesome.

By Kenneth Chang

Two private astronauts moved outside their spacecraft early Thursday morning, conducting the first-ever commercial spacewalk.

The spacewalk was the centerpiece of Polaris Dawn, a collaboration between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who is leading the mission.

“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” he said while standing in the hatch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule with the planet above his head.

The successful operation further reinforces that space travel is no longer the exclusive province of professional astronauts working at governmental space agencies like NASA, and now neither is the derring-do of spacewalks, when astronauts are protected by just their spacesuits from airless doom. The Polaris missions — this one is the first of three — aim to accelerate technological advances needed to fulfill Mr. Musk’s hope of sending people to Mars someday .

Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, cheered the spacewalk, which the government space agency played almost no role in .

“Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant U.S. space economy,” Mr. Nelson posted on the website X .

The spacewalk officially began at 6:12 a.m. Eastern time with the flow of oxygen into the astronauts’ spacesuits. That was almost three hours later than originally planned, but the operation proceeded without a hitch.

Because there is no airlock in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft used for the flight, the only way to perform a spacewalk is to let all of the air out of the spacecraft. NASA and Soviet astronauts conducted spacewalks in a similar manner in the 1960s.

First turning a hand crank, Mr. Isaacman opened the top hatch of the capsule and moved outside, where he conducted mobility tests of his spacesuit.

For a journey that earlier had traveled to the highest orbit by humans in more than a half-century, his sojourn in the vacuum of space was brief: After a few minutes, Mr. Isaacman re-entered the capsule, and another crew member, Sarah Gillis, a SpaceX engineer, moved outside and performed the same mobility tests.

Although the two other crew members, Scott Poteet and Anna Menon, remained inside the vehicle, they were also wearing spacesuits inside the airless capsule. It was the first time that four astronauts were simultaneously exposed to the vacuum of space.

After Ms. Gillis re-entered, she closed the hatch, and the inside of the spacecraft was slowly repressurized. Less than two hours after it started, the spacewalk was over.

A key goal of the Polaris Dawn mission is the development of more advanced spacesuits that would be needed for any attempt at off-world colonization by SpaceX. During a news conference before the launch, Mr. Isaacman mused about how someone stepping onto Mars might one day wear a future version of the spacesuit that SpaceX developed for this mission.

“A huge honor to have that opportunity to test it out on this flight,” he said.

Closer to Earth, commercial spacewalks could open up other possibilities once impossible to imagine, like technicians repairing private satellites in orbit. Mr. Isaacman has even suggested that the second Polaris mission could attempt a trip to NASA’s aging Hubble Space Telescope to perform repairs and extend its life in orbit.

The spacewalks by Mr. Isaacman and Ms. Gillis were short and modest in complexity. Unlike frantic scenes in science fiction movies, they waited patiently as air was slowly evacuated from their capsule. Then they moved methodically, following a carefully planned choreography that lasted only a few minutes.

After opening the hatch manually, Mr. Isaacman pulled himself upward using a railing mounted to the top of the Crew Dragon. He never let go of the spacecraft as he performed a series of movements to test the capabilities of the spacesuits.

When his time was up, he moved back down into the Crew Dragon, and Ms. Gillis then repeated the same actions.

The Polaris Dawn crew’s cautious approach was a reminder that space is an inherently inhospitable and dangerous environment, and during spacewalks astronauts are enclosed in a small bubble of air — their spacesuits — that keep them from suffocating in the vacuum of space.

While there have been near misses during spacewalks, including during the first spacewalk by a Soviet astronaut in 1965, going outside a spacecraft is not the most dangerous part of spaceflight. No astronauts have ever died or suffered serious injury during a spacewalk. And spacewalks are not infrequent: There have been more than 270 spacewalks conducted at the International Space Station since December 1998 largely without incident. (Astronauts at the I.S.S. enter and exit the space station through airlocks, minimizing the amount of air that is released into space.)

Fatalities during spaceflight have occurred during launches, as was the case with the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and its crew in 1986, or during landings, like when the space shuttle Columbia burned up in the searing heat of re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere in 2003.

The Polaris Dawn mission has so far gone smoothly.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Crew Dragon capsule and the four astronauts early Tuesday morning into an elliptical orbit that, at its highest point, was 755 miles above Earth’s surface.

That was the farthest off the planet that anyone has gone since NASA’s Apollo moon missions in the 1970s.

At that altitude, they passed through the South Atlantic Anomaly, a weak point in Earth’s magnetic field that allows high-energy charged particles from regions known as the Van Allen belts to come closer to Earth’s surface. Much of the radiation dosage from this spaceflight — equivalent to several months at the space station — occurred during these first few orbits.

Late on Tuesday, the thrusters fired to stretch its orbit to a high point of about 870 miles . That surpassed the 853-mile altitude that two NASA astronauts, Pete Conrad and Richard Gordon, reached during the Gemini XI mission in 1966, which had been the record distance for astronauts on a spaceflight not headed to the moon.

After circling Earth six times in the high orbit, the Crew Dragon returned to a lower orbit, where there is less danger from radiation and micrometeoroids.

During their spaceflight, the four crew members are conducting about 40 experiments, mostly investigating how weightlessness and radiation affect the human body. They have also tested laser communications between the Crew Dragon and SpaceX’s constellation of Starlink internet satellites.

Kenneth Chang, a science reporter at The Times, covers NASA and the solar system, and research closer to Earth. More about Kenneth Chang

What’s Up in Space and Astronomy

Keep track of things going on in our solar system and all around the universe..

Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other 2024 event  that’s out of this world with  our space and astronomy calendar .

Four private astronauts aboard an ambitious space mission  led by a billionaire entrepreneur traveled farther from Earth than any other human being in more than half a century, reaching altitudes not visited by any astronaut since the Apollo moon missions .

A spacecraft operated by the European Space Agency and Japan made its closest approach yet to Mercury, sending back sharp, black-and-white images of the planet’s barren, speckled surface at sunrise .

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A speeding star is traveling through the Milky Way at around a million miles an hour. It could be moving fast enough to break free from the gravitational clutches of the galaxy .

Is Pluto a planet? And what is a planet, anyway? Test your knowledge here .

Artemis Updates: These Are the Key Moments From Launch to Lunar Orbit and Splashdown

The artemis 1 mission began with a launch from florida before beginning the orion spacecraft's loop around the moon and a journey back to earth. here's a timeline of key events., by jonathan lloyd • published august 25, 2022 • updated on november 16, 2022 at 2:18 pm.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Nov. 16, 2022 to reflect the launch and updated mission timeline.

What to Know

• The Artemis 1 Mission to orbit the moon lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early morning hours of Nov. 16.
• The 26-day mission will be highlighted by an orbit around the moon, carrying the Orion un-crewed spacecraft 280,000 miles beyond Earth.
• Orion is scheduled for splashdown in mid-December after traveling 1.3 million miles.

A critical test flight that will provide a first look at NASA's new era of space travel begins with what should be a spectacular rocket launch from the Florida coast.

24/7 New York news stream: Watch NBC 4 free wherever you are

From there, critical moments and in-flight maneuvers will determine the success of the un-crewed Artemis 1 Mission , the first real step toward the first crewed moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Here's a timeline of key events that will follow the Artemis 1 launch on a journey to orbit the moon and the Orion spacecraft's return to Earth.

Artemis vs. Apollo: See How the Technology of NASA's Missions To The Moon Compare

NASA's Artemis I Mission: When and How to Watch the Rocket Launch

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Flight Day 1: Liftoff

The giant 30-story tall Artemis I rocket will produce a maximum 8.8. million pounds of thrust when it launches from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That's more power exertion than any rocket ever, NASA says.

Critical Moments After Liftoff

A precisely timed chain of events follows in the next roughly eight-minute window. The twin solid rocket boosters will separate, followed by the jettison of the service module fairing and launch abort system. The 212-foot tall core stage main engine will cut off before it too separates from the spacecraft.

Earth's gravity will be pulling on the rocket the entire time, requiring the launch system's engine to burn 735,000 gallons of liquid propellant to create 2 million pounds of thrust during its escape to the edge of space. Once their jobs are done, the solid rocket boosters and core stage will simply fall back to Earth.

Solar panels will deploy to generate power for Orion.

The @NASAArtemis mission is launching to the Moon, beginning a new era of lunar exploration! Artemis will use @NASASCaN ’s Near Space Network and Deep Space Network to communicate with mission control on Earth. Learn about Artemis' network support here: https://t.co/yFgOWteUQu pic.twitter.com/ZqbuqBtaVX — NASA's Near Space Network (@NearSpaceNet) August 24, 2022

Setting a Course for the Moon

Orion is about 100 miles above Earth and still accelerating at more than 17,500 mph, but will still need more power to reach the moon. Once in low-Earth orbit, its next key step is the trans-lunar injection (TLI) -- a maneuver that will propel it 280,000 miles beyond Earth and 40,000 miles beyond the moon. That's farther than any spacecraft capable of crewed flights has ever gone. The maneuver starts with a blast of 24,750 pounds of thrust from the upper part of the rocket that will allow Orion to be captured within the moon's gravity.

That rocket stage will separate and deploy 10 small CubeSat satellites to help study the moon or travel deeper into space before they are consumed during an orbit around the sun.

The spacecraft will be traveling toward the moon for the next few days.

Flight Day 10-15: Orbit Around the Moon

Orion has made it, carrying its cargo to lunar orbit. On Flight Day 11, Orion is set to make history. It is due to exceed the record distance set by Apollo 13 of 248,655 miles beyond Earth by about 30,000 more miles.

Flight Day 16-26: Return Trip to Earth and Splashdown

Orion begins its return trip to Earth. Orion is now scheduled for a tentative splashdown on Dec. 11. The spacecraft will be hurtling toward Earth at 24,000 mph before gently splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near California.

How can I follow the Artemis Mission?

You can follow the 26-day mission with NASA's Artemis Twitter account . NASA also will provide coverage on its YouTube channel . NASA is offering several other ways to track the mission in real-time .

Will Artemis 1 have a crew?

No, unless you're counting the three 'moonikins' NASA assigned to the mission -- and they are noteworthy . The mannequins will be in the same astronaut suit that will be worn by future Artemis crews and have sensors that measure vibration and space radiation. One of the 'moonikins' is named Moonikin Campos after Arturo Campos , who was a key figure in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. You can follow their adventures here in comic book-style.

Why is NASA going to the Moon?

The Artemis 1 mission is the first flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion, the stack of technology that will eventually send astronauts to the moon. Artemis II will send Orion and a crew farther than people have ever traveled from Earth. Artemis III is targeting the first crewed moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. The timeline for those missions depends largely on how things go with Artemis 1. The missions, named after the goddess of the moon and twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, are considered stepping stones to an eventual crewed mission to Mars.

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