From James Webb to Artemis 1: NASA chief hails epic successes of 2022

December 14, 2022

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NASA will look again on 2022 very fondly certainly.

The space company had quite a bit to rejoice this 12 months, from the deployment and operation of the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to the end-to-end success of the pioneering Artemis 1 moon mission.

“2022 will go down as one of the vital achieved years in all of NASA historical past,” NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson advised company workers throughout a city corridor assembly on Tuesday (Dec. 13).

Associated: James Webb Space Telescope’s 1st photos (gallery)

Nelson cited JWST as one among his chief examples. The massive observatory launched on Dec. 25, 2021, then spent a month touring to its remaining vacation spot, a gravitationally secure spot almost 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth.

JWST aced its frighteningly complicated deployment sequence, which featured almost 350 single factors of failure — particular person steps that may scuttle the whole mission in the event that they weren’t accomplished efficiently. JWST’s testing and checkout phase additionally went properly, and the infrared telescope began observing the heavens in July.

The primary few months of science have been eye-opening and eye-watering; JWST has already peered at among the universe’s most distant galaxies, for instance, and characterized the atmosphere of a close-by alien planet.

“Earlier this 12 months, the James Webb House Telescope kicked off a brand new period of astronomy,” Nelson mentioned. “Each picture is a brand new discovery. It deepens our understanding of the universe, simply how huge it’s, and our place in it.”

Nelson additionally talked about the company’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid moonlet referred to as Dimorphos in late September.

The collision considerably modified Dimorphos’ orbit round its father or mother physique, a bigger space rock referred to as Didymos, serving to researchers higher perceive the “kinetic impactor” methodology of asteroid deflection.

The DART impression was “a watershed second for planetary protection,” Nelson mentioned. “It was a smashing success, actually and figuratively.”

Nelson additionally hailed the landmark Artemis 1 mission, which despatched an uncrewed Orion capsule to lunar orbit and again.

Artemis 1, the first-ever mission for NASA’s big Space Launch System rocket and the second for Orion, lifted off on Nov. 16. It wrapped up when Orion splashed down within the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off Baja California on Sunday (Dec. 11) — 50 years to the day that the ultimate Apollo mission, Apollo 17, touched down on the lunar floor.

NASA can now start gearing up for Artemis 2, which is scheduled to ship 4 astronauts across the moon in 2024. If all goes properly with that flight, Artemis 3 will put boots down close to the lunar south pole in 2025 or 2026.

Preparations for these and different Artemis flights will proceed all through 2023; NASA already has {hardware} in progress to final via the Artemis 5 mission, company officers have mentioned.

And there is extra to look ahead to subsequent 12 months as properly, such because the return to Earth of asteroid samples collected in deep space by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe. That materials will contact down within the Utah desert next September, if all goes in response to plan.

“I am trying ahead to each day in 2023,” Nelson mentioned.

Mike Wall is the writer of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e-book concerning the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).