Watch NASA’s Artemis 1 Mission Preview Webcasts for Free

2 weeks ago

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NASA is weeks away from launching its first Artemis flight to the moon this month and you can find out all about the mission in free webcasts this week.

Artemis 1NASA’s Uncrewed Deep Space Test Flight Orion spacecraft and massive Space Launch System megarocket, is scheduled to launch around the moon on August 29. To set the stage for the mission, NASA will host a mission briefing on Wednesday (August 3) as well as a detailed mission briefing on Friday (August 5), and you can watch both events for free online at NASA website (opens in a new tab)NASA TV and the Nasa app (opens in a new tab).

“Artemis 1 is an uncrewed flight test, the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to the moon,” NASA officials wrote in a statement. announcement (opens in a new tab). “Through Artemis MissionsNASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a springboard for sending astronauts to March.”

NASA's Artemis 1 Space Launch System mega-rocket and Orion capsule on their launch pad in Florida under blue skies.

NASA’s Artemis 1 Space Launch System mega-rocket stands ready to launch the Orion spacecraft to the moon in this view from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Takeoff is scheduled for August 29, 2022. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA’s first Artemis 1 press conference this week will be on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), when the agency will hold a general overview of the mission. The briefing is expected to last one hour and will feature the following speakers:

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson;
Bhavya Lal, Associate Administrator for Technology, Policy and Strategy at NASA Headquarters;
Mike Sarafin, Artemis 1 mission manager at NASA Headquarters;
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis 1 launch director at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida (mission launch site);
John Honeycutt, Space Launch System program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama;
Howard Hu, Orion program manager, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston.

Following Wednesday’s briefing, NASA will host an Artemis 1 media day at its Johnson Space Center, which houses the agency’s astronaut corps. This media day will take place on Friday, August 5 and will include a detailed briefing on the Artemis 1 mission at 11:30 a.m. EDT (15:30 GMT). This briefing will feature the following speakers:

Debbie Korth, associate director of JSC’s Orion program;
Rick LaBrode, JSC Artemis I Senior Flight Director;
Judd Frieling, JSC Artemis I ascent/entry flight director;
Melissa Jones, KSC Artemis I Recovery Manager;
Reid Wiseman, JSC chief astronaut;
Philippe Deloo, head of the Orion European Service Module program at the European Space Agency.

“The first briefing will provide an overview of the Artemis 1 mission, and the second briefing will dive deeper into the Timeline of the Artemis 1 mission and spacecraft operations,” NASA officials said in the announcement.

Artemis 1 is a critical test flight that will launch an Orion spacecraft around the moon to test the technologies NASA needs to support the return of astronauts to the lunar surface. It will throw a “Moonikindummy, cubesats and other experiences inside Orion on a journey that will circumnavigate the moon and back to Earth.

If all goes well, NASA will follow the Artemis 1 mission with a crewed flight around the moon, called Artemis 2, in 2024. The Artemis 3 mission is the one that will land astronauts on the lunar surface, the spacecraft of SpaceX serving as the lunar lander for this flight. This flight is scheduled sometime after Artemis 2.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, FA vs Ebook and instagram.