Artemis progress

• 10-01-2023 The booster motors for the two solid rockets of Artemis II are complete. They will be shipped from Northrop Grumman in Utah to the KSC later in 2023.
• 11-01-2023 Opening hatch Artemis I.
• 11-01-2023 Mockup for training with HALO arrived at NASA Johnson.
• 13-01-2023 Hot fire test of the newly redesigned RS-25’s which will be used on Artemis V and beyond.
• 31-01-2023 Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE) Artemis I back in laboratory.
• 02-02-2023 First look at yeast cells that traveled around the Moon aboard Artemis I.
• 07-02-2023 Crew Module Test Article (CMTA) is used to practice recovery after splashdown of Artemis II.
• 07-02-2023 Scientists use the Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbad at NASA Ames Research to study the lunar terrain.
• 15-02-2023 Teams at NASA Michoud flipped the engine section of Artemis II from vertical to horizontal in preparation for final integration to the SLS Core Stage.
• 13-02-2023 Engine section Artemis II ready to be positioned.
• 07-03-2023 Core stage Artemis II in position for its final join.
• 08-03-2023 Third hot fire test of the redesigned RS-25 engine at Stennis Space Center (for 520 seconds at 113%). 500 seconds at 111% is needed to get Orion in a trajectory around Earth.
• 08-03-2023 No major issues found with Artemis I. NASA on schedule for launch Artemis II in November 2024.
• 11-03-2023 Orion pressure vessel for Artemis IV shipped to KSC.
• 15-03-2023 Axiom shows off moon suits for Artemis III.
• 03-04-2023 NASA reveals the crew for Artemis II. See NASA astronauts.
• 26-04-2023 First gimbal test of the RS-25 for certification missions beyond Artemis IV. 
• 09-05-2023 Long-duration hot fire of an RS-25 at Stennis.
• 12-05-2023 Acoustic test completed for the European Service Module (SM) for Artemis II.

• 19-05-2023 Contract for Blue Origin to demonstrate the Blue Moon lander (BML). Blue Origin will design, develop, test, and verify its Blue Moon lander to meet NASA’s human landing system requirements for recurring astronaut expeditions to the lunar surface, including docking with Gateway. In addition to design and development work, the contract includes one uncrewed demonstration mission to the lunar surface before a crewed demo on the Artemis V mission in 2029. The total award value of the firm-fixed price contract is $3.4 billion. Second lander next to SpaceX’s.

• 27-05-2023 NASA is seeking proposals from industry for a LTV (Lunar Terrain Vehicle).
• 30-05-2023 Spain became the 25th nation to commit to the peaceful and safe Artemis exploration of the Moon and Mars.

• 31-05-2023 Thermal protection applied to stage adapter for Artemis III.

• 01-06-2023 The four astronauts for Artemis II begin their training.

  • • Duration: 18 months.

    • Integrated simulations between the crew and Mission Control will start about 12 months before launch.

    • Primary location – NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas: Orion simulator, mock-up of the crew module, rocket and spacecraft hardware

    • Secondary location – NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida: rocket and spacecraft hardware integration, and launch pad and countdown operations

    • Other locations based on the type of training.

• 05-06-2023 Three hot fire tests remain this month before certification RS-25

• 06-06-2023 SM (ESM European Service Module) for Artemis II moved into the FAST (Final Assembly And System Testing) cell inside the high bay of the Operations and Checkout Building (OCB). Final checkouts before it is stacked with the CM.

• 07-06-2023 Fully integrating all five sections of the Core Stage, Testing the Solar Array Wing, Installing Orion’s Avionics Boxes.
• 14-06-2023 Artemis II will test laser communications technologies for potential future crewed spaceflight. Terminal O2O will be integrated with the Orion spacecraft.
• 25-06-2023 The Exploration Ground Systems team has been hard at work upgrading mobile launcher 1 and Launch Pad 39B ahead of integrated ground system tests for Artemis II. Technicians repaired the elevators on the mobile launcher, which sustained damage during the Artemis I launch, and teams are evaluating ways to harden the elevators and strengthen blast doors ahead of Artemis II. Teams also are testing the crew access arm, the entry and exit point on the mobile launcher astronauts use for access to the Orion spacecraft. Another major upgrade to the mobile launcher ahead of Artemis II is the addition of the emergency egress life safety system. The system provides astronauts and close out crews the ability to safely exit the mobile launcher or Orion in the unlikely event of an emergency during launch countdown. Other upgrades to pad 39B include completing construction of the additional 1.4-million-gallon liquid hydrogen sphere used for propellant loading. Having two liquid hydrogen spheres at the pad allows teams to minimize time between launch attempts for resupplying liquid hydrogen.

• 25-06-2023 New pavement markings indicate the direction of the emergency egress system terminus from Launch Complex 39B. The team has nearly completed the terminus area, where the emergency egress baskets carrying the astronauts and flight crew will arrive following their safe exit from the mobile launcher. The pavement markings are in patterns of yellow, blue, and gray colors.

• 25-06-2023 Teams are redesigning the panels on the flame deflector in the flame trench at Launch Pad 39B, ahead of the first critical ground testing for Artemis II. The flame deflector withstood damage observed after the launch of Artemis I. The flame trench resembles a large cement pit.

• 27-06-2023 Installation of the heat shield for the Artemis II Orion spacecraft completed at KSC.
• 08-08-2023 NASA is running tests to determine the root cause behind unanticipated variations observed across the heat shield in the wake of the Artemis I mission. Unanticipated level of wear and tear. Once NASA figures out what might have caused the issue with the heat shield, the space agency will begin to come up with ways to resolve it ahead of the November 2024 launch of Artemis II.
• 17-08-2023 The launch tower supporting Artemis I, II and III missions is back on the move for the first time after more than a half year of repairs and upgrades.
• 01-09-2023 Research into the costs of SLS by the Governement Accountability Office (GAO) (congress):
  • • Engine RS-25 (Rocketdyne) cost 70.5 million each. It was decided to convert a reusable version of the RS-25 (as used in the Space Shuttle) into a disposable version. Orders came from Congress.
    • Engine BE-4 (Blue Origin) cost 20.0 million each.
    • Engine Raptor (SpaceX) cost 1.0 million each.
• 25-09-2023 All four RS-25 installed to the core stage of Artemis II (Michoud, New Orleans).
• 26-09-2023 NASA and its advisory bodies remain concerned about the low flight rate planned for its crewed Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, but the space agency doesn’t have enough vehicles to fly more often this decade. Hardware to launch only two more SLS vehicles is available until development of the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS) upgrade is completed, which isn’t expected to be ready to launch on Artemis IV until late 2028 at the earliest.
• 27-09-2023 10 booster motor segments for Artemis II arrived from Utah at KSC.
• 05-10-2023 RS-25 test series (12 tests) at Stennis re-scheduled. Final test of certification testing ahead of production. Duration 500 seconds. The same amount of time the engines must fire during launch.

Upcoming

• 00-00-2023 In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Tech demonstration converting lunar ice to H2O using Nova-C (Luna Lander by Intuitive Machines).
• 00-00-2023 Hydrogen Fuel Cells For Lunar Exploration – Demo 1 delivered to surface of the Moon via Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander Astrobotic Technology | Blue Origin | Ceres Robotics | Deep Space Systems | Draper | Firefly Aerospace | Intuitive Machines | Lockheed Martin Space | Masten Space Systems | Moon Express | Orbit Beyond | Sierra Nevada Corporation | SpaceX | Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.
• 00-00-2023 Delivery of Starship Human Landing System (HLS) for uncrewed demo landing mission. SpaceX
• 00-11-2023 Masten Mission One: Tools for mapping the lunar surface temperature, radiation, and hydrogen delivered by Masten Space Systems via their XL-1 lander. Masten Space Systems.
• 00-11-2023 Griffin Mission One: Delivery of NASA’s VIPER rover on the Griffin lunar lander to the lunar surface by Astrobotics.