The Artemis I Mission

The Artemis mission is a project that's been in place to put man back on the moon since July 16, 1969, with Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were sent to the moon on the mighty Saturn V rocket from pad 39A. This three-stage 363-foot behemoth can produce 7.5 million pounds of thrust.... that's right, 7.5 MILLION pounds of thrust.

Here's a video of the Saturn V Rocket carrying the three astronauts to the moon!!

Before the trio made their trip from Earth to the moon, they took a lap and a half around the Earth. My guess is to ensure that the controls were working as they should while they still had a chance to turn the pod back around and come screaming back home. 

But something about NASA is that they make sure to have a backup for a backup if needed, but the only clear directive was they wanted to go forward, so there was no time for second-guessing. There isn't a no for an answer. They find solutions and set the protocols in place if there's an unforeseen event.

They proceeded with the mission to the moon to start "translunar injection," AKA making their way to the moon maneuvers. They were able to make it to the moon after the journey. They had almost missed the landing zone and were coming in too fast. A few other things were happening simultaneously for the astronauts, and they could finally contact the mission with this spectacular update.

 Armstrong radios, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." (July 20, 1969: One giant leap for mankind 2023)

From there, we got the famous picture of the first footstep on the moon, the US flag on the moon, and Neil Armstrong delivered his renowned line... you know the one I'm talking about *clears throat* ALL TOGETHER NOW " That's one small step for a man.. one giant leap for mankind." tell me that doesn't give you chills!

Now, let's fast forward to what happened on November 16, 2022. The world got to witness a monumental achievement accomplished. We sent an uncrewed pod to the moon on a particular flight pattern to use the gravitational pull of the Earth and the power of the booster as a way to help the Orion pod create a slingshot effect in a way to make it to the moon and orbit it in a retrograde orbit and back the mission took 25 days, 10 hours and 53 minutes from lift off to splash down on December 11, 2022.

This is the video from the launch. Before I post the video, though, I want to point out that the 7.5 million pounds of thrust from the Saturn V rocket we used to reach the moon seems like a considerable number. Just wait until you hear how strong this SLS (space launch system) rocket produced!

The SLS rocket that made that mission possible stood 321 feet, so it was a little smaller than the Saturn V, capable of producing 8.4 million pounds of thrust at lift..... 8.4 MILLION, come on now, th- That's unbelievable to hear!!!

The stunning images of Artemis and the flight path were retrieved from 

https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/view-the-best-images-from-nasas-artemis-i-mission/

https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/artemis-i-mission-map-nov/