If you stayed up late last night you may have seen the launch of the first part of the program known as NASA’s Artemis! At 1:47 am EST (Nov. 15, 2022) from the Space Launch System (SLS), which is the most powerful rocket in the entire world, the Orion spacecraft successfully launched on its way towards the moon. On this first part of the program, Artemis I, Orion doesn’t have a crew. It will actually travel about 40,000 miles PAST the moon and then come home.
This first flight is a test to see how the SLS and Orion work together during launch and how Orion does in deep space. If you have children that have attended our After School STEM program, we’ve learned about the SLS and built smaller models of our own, exploring how it has to be both strong enough to hold the spacecraft and handle liftoff but light enough to be mobile so it can be put into place. We’ve learned about the Artemis program and it’s eventual goal of seeing human exploration on Mars.
We’ll continue to explore themes related to the Artemis program as it unfolds along with other STEM activities Thursdays after school. Please note, this Thursday I am out of the office so there will be no After School STEM.
For some really great photos of the Artemis launch and of the program in general you can view NASA’s flickr here.