NASA's 50th anniversary celebrations weren't just all about its past achievements - the space agency made the day even more special by confirming that the Orion crew capsule that will bring astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program is ready for its first trip to lunar orbit
Vice President Mike Pence delivered a speech at the Kenedy Space Center July 20, with the Orion spacecraft serving as the backdrop, saying that assembly of the vehicle was now "complete" and ready for final testing.
"Thanks to the hard work of the men of NASA - men and women of NASA - and of American industry, the Orion crew vehicle for the Artemis 1 mission is complete and ready to begin preparations for its historic first flight," Pence remarked. "In the coming years, American astronauts will return to the moon aboard the Orion."
Orion will have no passengers for its first mission to the Moon. It will fly uncrewed propelled by the new Space Launch System as part of Artemis 1. the spacecraft will spend six days orbiting the Moon, staying in space for a total of three weeks before heading back to Earth.
On Earth, Orion will perform an important test of high-speed re-entry to our planet's atmosphere. This should demonstrate the sturdiness of the thermal shielding of the Orion and should test if it is fit to carry an actual crew for 2022's Artemis 2 mission. By 2024, Artemis 3 should deliver astronauts back to the lunar surface.
This isn't the first time Orion went out in space, though. In 2014, the space vehicle spent four hours in space with Exploration Flight Test 1, another uncrewed mission. Orion orbited the Earth two times before returning to the ground and used a Delta IV rocket instead of the new SLS. The mission was meant to test key systems before heading onto the Artemis missions.
NASA contractor Lockheed Martin, which constructed the Orion, noted that the combined service module and crew module are in the process of integration, undergoing a number of tests before it returns to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Orion will be undergoing final preparations before launch.
Neither NASA nor Pence announced a date for the Artemis 1 mission. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on a July 17 Senate Commerce Committee hearing said that he wanted to bring in new leadership for the agency's human spaceflight programs, who would then examine the costs and schedules of SLS and Orion, before deciding on a launch date.
