The Orion spacecraft built for the Artemis 1 mission recently finished environmental testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Ohio and is scheduled to be flown back to Kennedy Space Center soon.
NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk projected the Artemis 1 launch would likely take place in mid or late 2021.
The Orion spacecraft that will fly the Artemis 1 mission completed environmental testing at Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.
The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission will return to Kennedy Space Center from testing in Ohio later in March 2020 for final launch preparations, and Kennedy Space Center leadership agreed to treat that work as essential even if center access is restricted.
NASA’s internal estimates project the Artemis 1 launch to take place no earlier than spring 2021.
NASA estimated SLS development costs through the Artemis 1 launch had grown to $8,750,000,000 assuming a November 2020 launch, an increase of 25% from the baseline.
The OIG identified additional cost increases as likely because the Artemis 1 launch will slip from the November 2020 date used for earlier cost estimates.
The original agency commitment set SLS development costs through the first launch, Artemis 1, at $7 billion, excluding $2,700,000,000 in earlier formulation costs.
The Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission was completing testing at NASA’s Plum Brook Station as of 2020-02-28.
As of 2020-02-28, the SLS core stage for the Artemis 1 uncrewed test flight was at Stennis Space Center for a Green Run static-fire test scheduled for later in 2020.
The SLS core stage is expected to arrive at Kennedy Space Center in late summer or 2020-09-05 to begin integration for an Artemis 1 launch in mid to late 2021.
A first flight of the SLS, the uncrewed Artemis-1 mission, was unlikely to take place before early 2021.
Jim Bridenstine asserted that Artemis 2 is an independent mission from Artemis 1 and that slipping Artemis 1 would not necessarily prevent Artemis 3 from being successful in 2024.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine indicated the Artemis 1 mission would likely take place sometime in 2021.
NASA considers Artemis 2 an independent mission from Artemis 1 so that delaying Artemis 1 would not by itself prevent achieving Artemis 3 in 2024.
NASA will evaluate the entire Artemis program through the end of 2024 rather than focusing solely on delivering the Artemis 1 launch date.
NASA declared the SLS core stage for the Artemis 1 mission complete on 2019-12-09.
The SLS core stage for the Artemis 1 mission is located at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and is ready to ship out of the factory by the end of the month.
Jim Bridenstine is the NASA Administrator and expected the Artemis 1 launch to take place in 2021.
Contractors involved in the SLS/Orion program said at an 2019-08-19 conference that they expect the Artemis 1 launch in early 2021 rather than 2020.