Now, it’s time for the real thing. Team Artemis is targeting its first two-hour launch window from 8:33am. ET to 10:33 a.m. ET on Monday, August 29. There are backup launch windows on September 2nd and September 5th. NASA’s Kennedy YouTube channel will provide a live stream of the launch, which is expected to begin at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday and will last 10 to 12 hours. The massive 322-foot-tall (98-meter) stack will take a slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) ride on one of NASA’s giant Apollo-era crawlers from the assembly building to the launch site — just like the missions buses and the Apollo Saturn V rockets once did. The 6.6 million pound (3 million kg) crawler will carry its towering rocket stack and mobile launcher at a top speed of 1 mile per hour (1.6 kilometers per hour). The iconic crawler is one of two that have operated for more than 50 years at the Kennedy Space Center. The massive carriers first entered service in 1965 and can each carry 18 million pounds (8.2 million kilograms), or the weight of more than 20 fully loaded 777 airplanes, according to NASA. The crawlers are so wide that a professional baseball diamond could sit on top of each one. The unmanned Artemis I will launch on a mission that crosses the moon and returns to Earth. Once launched, the spacecraft will reach a distant retrograde orbit around the moon, traveling 1.3 million miles (2.1 million kilometers) over 42 days before blasting off into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on October 10 . Orion’s return will be swift and hotter than any spacecraft has ever experienced on its way back to Earth. The Orion spacecraft will travel farther than any human-built spacecraft has ever flown, reaching 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the far side of the moon, according to NASA. There are no people on board, but Orion will carry 120 pounds (54.4 kg) of memorabilia, including toys, Apollo 11 artifacts and three mannequins. In Orion’s command seat will be Commander Moonikin Campos, a suitable mannequin that can collect data on what future human crews might experience on a lunar journey. The mannequin will wear the new Orion Crew Survival System suit designed for astronauts to wear during launch and re-entry. The suit has two radiation sensors. Two “phantoms” named Helga and Zohar will lead to other Orion positions. These mannequin torsos are made of materials that mimic a woman’s soft tissues, organs and bones. The two trunks have more than 5,600 sensors and 34 radiation detectors to measure how much radiation exposure occurs during spaceflight. That mission will launch NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon and land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface by 2025 — and eventually pave the way for human exploration of Mars. Artemis I will also conduct a series of science experiments, some of which will be installed once the rocket and spacecraft reach the launch site.
