SpaceX Ax-1 Launch & NASA Artemis I Moon Rocket | Kennedy Space Center

SpaceX Ax-1 Launch & NASA Artemis I Moon Rocket | Kennedy Space Center

NASA’s Artemis I Moon Rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard, is seen atop a mobile launcher at Launch Complex 39B, right, as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) to the International Space Station Friday, April 8, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Aboard the Falcon 9 are Commander Michael López-Alegría of Spain and the United States, Pilot Larry Connor of the United States, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe of Israel, and Mark Pathy of Canada. The Ax-1 mission is the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. López-Alegría, Connor, Pathy, Stibbe launched at 11:17 a.m. from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin their 10-day mission. 

This is the first time two totally different types of rockets and spacecraft designed to carry humans are on the sister pads at the same time—but it will not be the last as NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida continues to grow as a multi-user spaceport to launch both government and commercial rockets.

Learn more about Ax-1 at Axiom Space: https://www.axiomspace.com

Artemis I launch is currently scheduled for spring 2022.

The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate NASA's commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.  It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a three-week mission. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.

Learn more about Artemis I at:

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1

Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Image Date: April 8, 2022

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