NASA closed out 2022 with a bang.
The completion of the space company’s Artemis 1 mission, the profitable first launch of its new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the return of the uncrewed Orion capsule after its journey across the moon, put a pleasant bow on the top of NASA’s yr in 2022.
Former Senator and present NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson mentioned as a lot in a latest video launched by NASA initially of the brand new yr. “’22 will go down within the historical past books as one of the crucial completed years [in] all of NASA’s historical past,” Nelson says, including that final yr has kicked off a “golden age of space exploration.”
The video is known as “NASA in 2023: A Look Ahead (opens in new tab)” and it serves as a teaser for a few of what to anticipate from the space company within the coming yr. In it, Nelson highlights the upcoming TEMPO local weather satellite, and mentions “game-changing aeronautics developments” in his narration over photos of NASA’s X-59 “low-boom” supersonic jet and the X-57 all-electric aircraft prototype. And, with a sweeping shot of the present astronaut choice pool, Nelson says 2023 would be the yr the crew for Artemis 2 will likely be chosen.
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“And there is much more coming,” Nelson provides earlier than the background music takes the video right into a montage of notable space achievements to lookout for over the subsequent yr. To NASA’s credit score, there is a good motive they made this video, as there are many main spaceflight, astronomy and aeronautics developments deliberate for 2023.
The primary crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is slated for April, which can add a second U.S. possibility for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). OSIRIS-Rex, NASA’s asteroid pattern return mission, is scheduled return to Earth with samples of asteroid Bennu this September, and one other asteroid mission, PSYCHE, will launch in October to check a metal-rich asteroid, probably the remnant of a protoplanetary core.
The video additionally highlights upcoming robotic lunar missions, ongoing crew and cargo missions to the ISS alongside ongoing the science that may occur aboard the station, contract awards for lunar terrain car providers and one other human lander system for the Artemis missions and the upcoming reveal of the Artemis spacesuit prototypes.
Nelson ends the video with a quote from Carl Sagan. “Exploration is in our nature. We started as wanderers, and we’re wanderers nonetheless. Now we have lingered lengthy sufficient on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We’re prepared eventually to set sail for the celebrities,” Nelson learn aloud, including, “we have now set sail for the celebrities. Now we will attain out to the unreachable stars.” A picture of the moon turns into Mars because the music ends, and the ultimate full fifteen seconds of video are merely the Crimson Planet rotating on display.
From the appears to be like of NASA’s video, 2023 goes to be a fantastic yr for space.
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