Artemis I: the mission with which humans will return to the Moon was launched… to go to Mars

Artemis I is an experimental mission, without a crew, whose objectives are to test whether the Orion capsule is capable of taking astronauts safely to the Moon and bringing them back. Its launch from Cape Canaveral has been “incredible, we are optimistic, humans will set foot on the lunar surface again.”

The last time they did it was almost 50 years ago: “we went for a short period of time (…), but now we will return, not only to go, but to learn, to settle and know how to live on the Moon”, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference.

And it is that the general objective of the Artemis program is to establish a base on the Moon as a previous step to arrive in the future at Mars. For this, after Artemis I (carrying mannequins), NASA will launch Artemis II into lunar orbit with a crew in 2024, and the takeoff of Artemis III is expected for 2025, a mission in which astronauts, including a woman, would touch the ground of the satellite.

“What an incredible sight to see the SLS rocket from the POT and the Orion spacecraft take off together for the first time (…). This flight test will help us prepare for human exploration on the Moon and ultimately Mars,” Nelson said.

For Mike Bolger, head of the exploration terrestrial systems program, “today is an incredible day, the launch of Artemis I has been incredible. As a child I dreamed of working at NASA, we can dream of it”.

“I wanted to be part of what can change the world and today we have done it,” he said at the press conference, in which NASA showed an image of the Earth “seen” by Artemis.

But this first mission of the program not only wants to test the Orion spacecraft, of which the European Space Agency (ESA) -with Spanish participation- has designed, developed and built the service module that provides propulsion, energy, water, oxygen and nitrogen , in addition to keeping the capsule at the right temperature.

It is also a definitive test for the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. All the participants in the press conference agreed to highlight, despite the failures detected, that it is the most powerful rocket.

NASA had to delay the departure of the mission four times, twice for technical reasons and another two for meteorological reasons. And today takeoff was delayed by half an hour: during launch preparation, an “intermittent leak” of liquid hydrogen was detected at the refueling valve in the rocket’s core stage.

“This is a new system and Artemis I is a test mission. It will serve to learn from mistakes; space is really hard and difficult if you want to do what we’re doing,” Nelson said.

Emily Nelson, flight director of the Johnson Space Center (Houston), declared that today is the beginning of an exciting project and explained that one of Artemis’ tasks is to study the equipment, that is, to test the maximum security conditions for astronauts. .

Three mannequins with radiation sensors travel and “the commander” is called Campos, in honor of the NASA engineer of Hispanic origin Arturo Campos who played an essential role in solving an emergency that could have ruined Apollo 13, that of “Houston we have had a problem”. “We are not going to sleep these 26 days, but it is exciting to think about what we can see and learn,” Emily Nelson stressed.

Emotion in the rooms

The emotion in the press conference room is the same as that experienced in the broadcast of the event (in English and Spanish) and in the control room.

At 1:47 local time (0647 GMT) the SLS rocket blasted its way into space in the middle of the night, leaving a trail of fire and smoke generated by its four SR25 engines, with the Orion spacecraft docked. “Three, two, one. Ignition and takeoff of Artemis I. We rise together back to the Moon and beyond, ”said the commentator unable to contain his emotion.

After takeoff, in the control room the traditions were fulfilled.

The launch director, for the first time a woman, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, addressed the entire team, highlighting the hard work: “You have earned your place in history (…) You are part of something incredibly special, the first step of the return of our country to the Moon and Mars”.

This was the first time that Blackwell-Thompson had taken command of a pitch and it was carried out successfully, thus fulfilling a second tradition, cutting his tie, which was handled by Mike Leinbach, a former pitching director during the It was from the Space Shuttle.

The broadcast of Artemis I, also with two stuffed animals on board -Snoopy and Shaun the sheep-, included music (Philadelphia Philharmonic) and a live connection to the International Space Station, from which astronauts Jessica Watkins (NASA) and Samantha Cristoforetti (ESA) shared their experiments.