The Space Launch System has roared to life, launching NASA’s Orion Spacecraft on its journey for #Artemis I! Look out Moon, we are on the way!

The Artemis mission is preparing astronauts for this lofty goal.

Humans are on course to be living and even working on the moon by 2030, a NASA official told BBC’s Sunday.

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Howard Hu, the head of the U.S. agency’s Orion lunar spacecraft programme, said astronauts could stay on the celestial object for extended periods of time by the end of this decade.

NASA’s Artemis 1 capsule is en route to the Moon, where it’s expected to break a number of spacefaring records—including one set during Apollo 13.

One thing I learned today is that one of the many SpaceX explosions didn’t have to happen. It turns out that NASA gave SpaceX the option of doing the in-flight abort test via simulation or in reality. The problem with doing it in reality is that SpaceX would likely lose an expensive rocket.

Boeing decided to do their in-flight abort test via simulation for their Starliner capsule. Luckily, SpaceX doesn’t trust simulations and did it for real. I say luckily, because we are overdue to lose more humans in space. So far this century, Virgin Galactic has had 1 death and 1 serious injury, NASA has had 7 deaths, and Soyuz has injured 2 people bad enough to require hospitalization.

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SpaceX’s Dragon Crew Capsule safely blasted away from its carrier Falcon rocket in an test of its abort systems on Jan 19, 2020. The rocket exploded during descent as expected: https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-launch-abort-test-success.html.

Credit: SpaceX

Join NASA’s Orion spacecraft on its first mission around the Moon using the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW) to track the spacecraft’s flight as it happens.

NASA’s moon-bound Orion space capsule fired its main engine for the first time about eight hours after the launch of the Artemis 1 mission to adjust its trajectory and check out the system.

The capsule was lofted to space by the giant Space Launch System rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida early Wednesday morning (Nov. 16). The rocket’s second stage put the capsule on a trajectory toward the moon about two hours after liftoff. However, to perfect the path and to make sure that Orion’s own maneuvering system works as designed, the capsule performed a planned engine burn shortly before 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) on Wednesday.