UPDATE: NASA announced today that it will try again this Saturday to launch its Artemis mission to the moon. A planned launch for the rocket was scrubbed after temperature concerns arose about one of its four main engines. Those concerns have now been allayed, according to multiple reports.
PREVIOUS, AUG. 29: Today’s planned launch of Artemis I has been scrubbed for now, NASA says, as teams work through an issue discovered during an “engine bleed” test that indicated one of four engines failed to reach a correct temperature for liftoff.
The next launch opportunity is September 2, although it was unclear this morning whether NASA would aim for that launch date or determine another.
The launch of #Artemis I is no longer happening today as teams work through an issue with an engine bleed. Teams will continue to gather data, and we will keep you posted on the timing of the next launch attempt. https://t.co/tQ0lp6Ruhv pic.twitter.com/u6Uiim2mom
— NASA (@NASA) August 29, 2022
PREVIOUS, AUG 25: To the moon, Alice. No, Ralph Kramden isn’t involved, but that’s where NASA is headed, as it prepares its long-awaited launch of Artemis 1. That’s the renewable vehicles program that is the great hope for sending future manned missions back to the moon and potentially Mars.
To celebrate the program’s launch – delayed by funding issues several times – the Emmy-winning Felix & Paul Studios are planning to livestream the unmanned launch of the first vehicle on Aug. 29 via several platforms. It will mark the first test flight of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) and the complete Orion spacecraft that will someday carry a manned crew. Several tests and a satellite deployment are part of the mission before its return to earth and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
After this mission, Artemis 2 will do a lunar flyby with a crew, and then Artemis 3 will have a manned lunar landing, the first in five decades since the Apollo program.
The launch viewing will be in an immersive 360° format and accessible in Virtual Reality on Meta Quest, on Facebook 360, and in a worldwide coalition of domes and planetariums where space fans can gather for a mobile experience. The livestream from Felix & Paul will be hosted on Meta Quest in the “Venues in Horizon Worlds” area by retired NASA astronauts Karen Nyberg and Doug Hurley. The broadcast will begin at 7:33 AM Eastern time.
Facebook 360 will also host the livestream on its Space Explorers Facebook page, while the Orange “Immersive Now” and LG Uplus U+Drive mobile applications will also feature it. For more details on where to watch, visit www.explore.space.
Felix & Paul Studios has prevous produced the Space Explorers series.
