Alongside the crew flights, SpaceX’s cargo Dragon is targeting three commercial resupply services launches for NASA in 2023 to deliver thousands of pounds of supplies, equipment, science investigations to the orbiting laboratory. NASA and SpaceX also will continue crew rotation flights to and from the space station with the launch of the Crew-6 and Crew-7 missions. Teams are readying the hardware, crew, and mission support teams for the launch of Boeing’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) to the International Space Station, the first CST-100 Starliner flight with astronauts, scheduled no earlier than April. Following a successful CFT mission, NASA will begin the final process of certifying the Starliner spacecraft and systems for crew missions to the orbital outpost. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX have a robust manifest in 2023. The crew access arm is seen as it swings into position for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 ahead of the Orbital Flight Test-2 mission. Intuitive Machines will send a lunar lander with two primary components: The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain ( TRIDENT) and the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations ( MSOLO). The Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 ( PRIME-1) mission – scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in 2023 – is the first in-situ resource demonstration on the Moon and first time NASA will robotically sample and analyze ice from below the surface. The upcoming year also will see NASA continue work with several American companies to deliver science and technology to the lunar surface through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, with processing of critical hardware taking place at Kennedy. commercial provider under a Gateway Logistics Services contract, while upgrades to Launch Complex 39A by SpaceX will help make regular crewed transportation to the lunar surface a reality through the company’s Starship Super Heavy rocket and human landing system. The Gateway Project office at Kennedy – Deep Space Logistics – continues working with SpaceX as the first U.S. This includes modifying the mobile launcher, the Vehicle Assembly Building, and launch pad 39B, where EGS will develop the emergency egress system and a new liquid hydrogen tank to support upcoming crewed missions. 9, 2022, as the mobile launcher, carried atop the crawler-transporter 2, arrives at the entrance to the transfer aisle.Įxploration Ground Systems (EGS), based at Kennedy, will work on upgrading the spaceport’s launch systems and facilities for Artemis II. The zero-emissions vehicles will replace the agency’s Astrovan fleet, the 1983 Airstream vehicles that carried space shuttle crews to the launch pad.Ī view from inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec. will deliver customized all-electric crew transportation vehicles designed to take the fully suited Artemis astronauts, their support team, and equipment on the nine-mile stretch of road from the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to Launch Complex 39B starting with the Artemis II mission. A newly arrived Space Launch System core stage engine section for Artemis III – the mission set to return humans to the surface of the Moon – will undergo assembly and outfitting activities at the Space Station Processing Facility ahead of integration at the Vehicle Assembly Building. Both will continue assembly and processing during the year. Orion crew and service modules for Artemis II are already at Kennedy, along with the crew module for Artemis III. After successful splashdown of Orion to close out the year, the spacecraft returns to Kennedy for analysis to start 2023.ĭevelopment for the crewed Artemis missions is underway at the spaceport. 16, 2022, marked a major step forward as the agency pursues its Moon to Mars exploration plans. The launch of NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft on Artemis I from Kennedy on Nov. The engine section of the Space Launch System rocket’s core stage for NASA’s Artemis III mission is moved on a work stand into the high bay of the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec.
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