Artemis I Launch Day VIP Activities

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, center, visits with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, at right, and astronaut candidate Andre Douglas, during launch countdown activities for NASA’s Artemis I mission on Aug. 29, 2022, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch was waved off for the day. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond. The primary goal of Artemis I is to thoroughly test the integrated systems before crewed missions by operating the spacecraft in a deep space environment, testing Orion’s heat shield, and recovering the crew module after reentry, descent, and splashdown.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, center, visits with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, at right, and astronaut candidate Andre Douglas, during launch countdown activities for NASA’s Artemis I mission on Aug. 29, 2022, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch was waved off for the day. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond. The primary goal of Artemis I is to thoroughly test the integrated systems before crewed missions by operating the spacecraft in a deep space environment, testing Orion’s heat shield, and recovering the crew module after reentry, descent, and splashdown.

Photographer NASA/Ben Smegelsky
Album Artemis_I_Launch
Location OSB II