Each one began at Kennedy's Launch Complex 39. › View larger image NASA's shuttle fleet - Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour - flew a total of 135 missions. Image above: Shuttle Discovery touches down on Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility, completing the STS-133 mission. Image above: Shuttle Endeavour is silhouetted against the dawn sky as it rolls to Launch Pad 39A for STS-130 launch preparations. Space shuttle Atlantis completed the program on July 21, 2011, wrapping up the STS-135 mission with a predawn touchdown on the same runway where Columbia first arrived more than 30 years earlier. Image credit: NASA › View larger imageīeginning with space shuttle Columbia's 1979 delivery to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the center has been home to each of the five flown shuttle orbiters for the duration of the Space Shuttle Program. Analysts say this is unsustainable and note it is already billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.Image above: Space shuttle Atlantis launches Jon the STS-135 mission, the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program. The Artemis program comes with a $93bn price tag, including $4.1bn for each of the first launches. Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, explained the purpose of the Artemis program in an interview with Newsweek earlier this year: “We’re going back to the moon after 50 years, to stay, to learn, to work, to create, to develop new technologies and new systems and new spacecraft in order to go to Mars … This is a tremendous turn of history.” Hopes of an early October launch were thwarted when the threat of Hurricane Ian forced the space agency to roll the giant $4.1bn Space Launch System (SLS) rocket back to the safety of the hangar. The “crew” for Artemis 1 includes sensor-rigged mannequins called Helga, Zohar and Moonikin Campos, who will gauge radiation levels, and a soft toy Snoopy and Shaun the Sheep as gravity detectors.Ī series of delays through the summer and early fall held the launch date back after attempts in August and September were scrapped when engineers discovered an engine cooling problem, then were unable to fix an unrelated fuel leak. The Orion capsule is set for a 25-day, 1.3m-mile journey to the moon and back. If you have just joined us, here’s what we know so far: The test flight aims to send an empty crew capsule into a far-flung lunar orbit, 50 years after Nasa’s famed Apollo moonshots.įor any updates or feedback you wish to share, please feel free to get in touch via email or Twitter. The launch is part of Nasa’s new moon program with a test flight of a brand-new rocket and capsule. The Artemis 1, the most powerful rocket ship in history, will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1.04am EST (6.04am GMT) on Wednesday. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next couple of hours. Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Nasa’s Artemis rocket launch to the moon. 06.39 GMT Nasa kicks off new moon program
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