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nasa · 1 year

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The Artemis I Mission: To the Moon and Back

The Artemis I mission was the first integrated test of the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and Exploration Ground Systems at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We’ll use these deep space exploration systems on future Artemis missions to send astronauts to the Moon and prepare for our next giant leap: sending the first humans to Mars.

Take a visual journey through the mission, starting from launch, to lunar orbit, to splashdown.

Liftoff

The SLS rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launched on Nov. 16, 2022, from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The world’s most powerful rocket performed with precision, meeting or exceeding all expectations during its debut launch on Artemis I.

"This is Your Moment"

Following the successful launch of Artemis I, Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson congratulates the launch team.

“The harder the climb, the better the view,” she said. “We showed the space coast tonight what a beautiful view it is.”

That's Us

On Orion’s first day of flight, a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays captured this image of Earth.

Inside Orion

On the third day of the mission, Artemis I engineers activated the Callisto payload, a technology demonstration developed by Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco that tested a digital voice assistant and video conferencing capabilities in a deep space environment. In the image, Commander Moonikin Campos occupies the commander’s seat inside the spacecraft. The Moonikin is wearing an Orion Crew Survival System suit, the same spacesuit that Artemis astronauts will use during launch, entry, and other dynamic phases of their missions. Campos is also equipped with sensors that recorded acceleration and vibration data throughout the mission that will help NASA protect astronauts during Artemis II. The Moonikin was one of three “passengers” that flew aboard Orion. Two female-bodied model human torsos, called phantoms, were aboard. Zohar and Helga, named by the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) respectively, supported the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE), an experiment to provide data on radiation levels during lunar missions. Snoopy, wearing a mock orange spacesuit, also can be seen floating in the background. The character served as the zero-gravity indicator during the mission, providing a visual signifier that Orion is in space.

Far Side of the Moon

A portion of the far side of the Moon looms large in this image taken by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays on the sixth day of the mission.

First Close Approach

The Orion spacecraft captured some of the closest photos of the Moon from a spacecraft built for humans since the Apollo era — about 80 miles (128 km) above the lunar surface. This photo was taken using Orion’s optical navigational system, which captures black-and-white images of the Earth and Moon in different phases and distances.

Distant Retrograde Orbit

Orion entered a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon almost two weeks into the mission. The orbit is “distant” in the sense that it’s at a high altitude approximately 50,000 miles (80,467 km) from the surface of the Moon. Orion broke the record for farthest distance of a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and safely return them to Earth, reaching a maximum distance of 268,563 miles (432,210 km).

Second Close Approach

On the 20th day of the mission, the spacecraft made its second and final close approach to the Moon flying 79.2 miles (127.5 km) above the lunar surface to harness the Moon’s gravity and accelerate for the journey back to Earth.

Cameras mounted on the crew module of the Orion spacecraft captured these views of the Moon’s surface before its return powered flyby burn.

Heading Home

After passing behind the far side of the Moon on Flight Day 20, Orion powered a flyby burn that lasted approximately 3 minutes and 27 seconds to head home. Shortly after the burn was complete, the Orion spacecraft captured these views of the Moon and Earth, which appears as a distant crescent.

Parachutes Deployed

Prior to entering the Earth’s atmosphere, Orion’s crew module separated from its service module, which is the propulsive powerhouse provided by ESA (European Space Agency). During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph (40,236 kph) to about 20 mph (32 kph) for its parachute-assisted splashdown.

Splashdown

On Dec. 11, the Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California after traveling 1.4 million miles (2.3 million km) over a total of 25.5 days in space. Teams are in the process of returning Orion to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once at Kennedy, teams will open the hatch and unload several payloads, including Commander Moonikin Campos, the space biology experiments, Snoopy, and the official flight kit. Next, the capsule and its heat shield will undergo testing and analysis over the course of several months.

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sciencespies · 1 year

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50 Years After the Apollo 17 Mission, the Moon Looks Closer Than Ever

https://sciencespies.com/space/50-years-after-the-apollo-17-mission-the-moon-looks-closer-than-ever/

50 Years After the Apollo 17 Mission, the Moon Looks Closer Than Ever

Fifty years ago today, two men woke up on humanity’s last day on the moon.

Nobody would be back to the moon anytime soon. Plans for additional Apollo missions had been scrapped two years earlier, in 1970. A few minutes ahead of their scheduled wake-up time, two NASA astronauts, Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, called home from Apollo 17’s smelly, dust-strewn lunar module to croon “Good morning to you” down to Earth. Mission Control responded with a blast of “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” recently famous from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the Stanley Kubrick film that imagined permanent lunar outposts and human journeys to Jupiter

Their formal goodbyes had already been delivered to the TV cameras. The only thing left to do was to work down a few prelaunch checklists, depart to meet with Ronald E. Evans in the command module and then head home to Earth. “Now, let’s get off,” Cernan said, and so they did, their craft climbing up from the moon’s gray desolation until it was lost in a black sky.

Clockwise from top left, Apollo 17 in view of its target during countdown on Dec. 7, 1972; likewise, Artemis 1 on the night before its launch on Nov. 14; Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis I launch director, in the firing room in 2019; Apollo 17 firing room team members cheering its launch in 1972. NASA

While many Americans in 2019 celebrated the 50 years after Apollo 11 first put Neil and Buzz on the moon, Wednesday’s anniversary carries more than a twinge of sadness for fans of space exploration. For a brief few years, the Earth and moon were linked by a bridge built through ingenuity, technology and vast sums of taxpayer money.

A few men — only men, only white, all of them except for Dr. Schmitt from the U.S. military — had walked the narrow path across the cold and black and lived to tell the tale. Countless imaginary space futures had blossomed out from this point: spinning space stations, boots on Mars, humanity reaching toward the edge of the solar system. Then it all went up in one last plume of rocket exhaust.

This year, though, the anniversary of the Apollo 17 mission came twinned in time with a new set of lunar imagery in eye-popping high definition. A new NASA mission called Artemis I — Artemis being Apollo’s twin sister, in Greek myth — had finally jetted off to the moon last month with a few mannequins aboard. Once there, it orbited without landing and then sailed home without a hitch, plunking down safely in the Pacific on the same day, Dec. 11, that Schmitt and Cernan had touched down on the moon for the last time, a half-century earlier.

Artemis 1 didn’t land astronauts, and its expected follow-up, Artemis II, will only send a crew of four around the moon and bring them home. But these missions start the path for Artemis III, which should bring a new human crew down to the lunar surface later this decade, this time carrying a woman and a person of color. From a symbolic standpoint, at least, the message was clear: At long last, we’re really on our way back.

Clockwise from top left, the view of Earth during Apollo 17’s translunar coast; Orion unfurling its solar array on Nov. 16; Orion separating from its interim cryogenic propulsion stage; Orion taking a selfie; Apollo 17’s command module seen from the lunar module; ice and particles surrounding the lunar module during the transposition and docking maneuver.NASA

Apollo 17, like Artemis I, launched from Earth at night. It was a fitting setting for the figurative twilight of the Apollo program. “If this was a novel, it would be a scene that would be too ham-fisted,” said Lois Rosson, a historian of science at the University of Southern California.

That symbolism wasn’t missed, seven miles off what was known at the time as Cape Kennedy, where a cruise ship laden with space-age-era luminaries — the writers Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and Norman Mailer, alongside scientists like Carl Sagan, Frank Drake and Marvin Minsky — had assembled as a focus group on the future of space exploration.

Many of these attendees felt Apollo’s cancellation showed the pitfalls of letting the government drive space exploration. The Vietnam War, the struggle against poverty and sagging public support had all placed Apollo and the grand designs of space enthusiasts in the cross hairs of Congress and the Nixon administration. Perhaps a more private, corporate space effort — not unlike SpaceX, which would emerge in the 2000s under Elon Musk — would be a better model.

“That’s where the seeds of that ideology first get planted,” Dr. Rosson said.

Clockwise from top left, the Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, left, and Ronald E. Evans; the Artemis 1 crew commander Moonikin Campos; Orion’s final close approach to the moon on Dec. 5; Orion on Dec. 5 in an image taken from a camera mounted on one of its solar arrays; Apollo’s command and service modules during rendezvous on Dec. 14, 1972; the Copernicus crater, as seen by Apollo 17. NASA

On the moon, the astronauts had jobs to do. Apollo 17 hauled back more rocks than any other mission. At one point, the astronauts drove their lunar rover a record-breaking, terrifying-when-you-think-about-it 4.7 miles away from the sanctuary of their lunar module. In Dr. Schmitt, they also had the only trained geologist ever to walk on the lunar surface. “Nothing like putting yourself to sleep thinking about unrealizable dreams,” he wrote later, describing his state of mind after the last moonwalk.

The samples they and the preceding Apollo astronauts ferried back became foundational for lunar science. These rocks helped show, for example, that the moon probably formed after an extremely violent collision between baby Earth and another protoplanet. Lunar rocks from Apollo 17 also hinted that future astronauts might be able to hunt down resources like water and titanium, said David Kring, a planetary scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

Entire scientific careers have started and ended waiting for a successor mission like Artemis. “I have several colleagues who are just a little bit older than me, and they’ve had to retire before they see this,” Dr. Kring said.

Clockwise from top left, an “earthrise” seen by Apollo 17; Orion’s own “earthrise” on Dec. 5; the moon’s surface, as seen by Orion; Orion splashing down in the Pacific on Dec. 11; Apollo 17 splashing down on Dec. 19; Apollo 17’s own close-up view of the moon.NASA

Hope is now rising. Not that everyone loves Artemis; we have, of course, been to the moon before. The current plan to return dates to the Trump administration and was presented by President Donald J. Trump along with the idea of always putting America first. President Biden has embraced that timeline and framework, too.

The post-Apollo debate over who should lead space exploration rages on, too. Artemis I rode to space on an over-budget, oft-criticized megarocket built through NASA’s traditional model of managing private contractors. Artemis III, meanwhile, is booked for a moon landing on a new spacecraft under development using a commercial approach at SpaceX. Mr. Musk’s company has received contracts worth billions of dollars to provide lunar landers.

A half-century later, disagreements persist about why we go to the moon. Or how. Or whether we should even try. Yet it’s hard to see the new imagery and not feel something.

Apollo 17’s liftoff from the lunar surface on Dec. 14, 1972, the last time a human visited the moon.NASA

After lifting off, the Apollo 17 astronauts orbited the moon, then burned fuel to begin the trip back to the blue-green marble rising above the lunar horizon. It had been an unseasonably warm December in 1972. At that time, freshwater dolphins still swam in the Yangtze River, golden toads still hopped through the cloud forests of Costa Rica and there were more than two northern white rhinos alive.

Fast-forward 50 laps around the sun, when Artemis I captured a similar view during its last close approach to the moon before heading home, albeit of a crescent Earth another degree Fahrenheit hotter and with four billion more people. Engineers on the ground paused, gawking. “We just sat there and absorbed what we were looking at for about a minute, and the room was just absolutely silent,” said Mike Sarafin, the Artemis 1 mission manager at NASA.

“Some of what we’re living right now, with our brothers and sisters from Apollo, is that they’ve shared wisdom with us that we’re just now really appreciating,” Mr. Sarafin said.

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stephen-barry · 2 years

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latestnewsfeedsposts · 2 years

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NASA Artemis I SLS Rocket Passes Fueling Test Ahead of Planned September 27 Launch Date: Details

NASA said Wednesday it had successfully trialed the fuelling process for its new rocket, after technical issues a few weeks ago halted two attempts to get the behemoth off the ground and headed towards the Moon. “All of the objectives that we set out to do we were able to accomplish today,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director of the program called Artemis 1. The unmanned mission…

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harpianews · 2 years

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Space News Weekly recap: Artemis I cryogenic test to web images of Mars

NASA’s Artemis 1 Cryogenic Tanking Demonstration Test After the demonstration, launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said all objectives were met. After hours of effort, NASA finally managed to load about 14 million liters of fuel into the rocket. After the aborted launch attempt on September 3, the space agency replaced the two seals in a leaky line. Subsequently, NASA updated the loading…

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telodogratis · 2 years

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Artemis I: lancio rinviato per la seconda volta

Read More La missione Artemis I è stata nuovamente rinviata a causa di perdite di idrogeno liquido rilevata durante il suo caricamento nell’ultimo tentativo di lancio. Sono stati fatti tre tentativi per risolvere il problema, ma senza riuscire a trovare una soluzione. La decisione è stata presa da Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, direttrice di lancio. Nelle prossime ore i responsabili Artemis I:…

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newsmafia · 2 years

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NASA cancels second Artemis launch attempt to the moon amid stubborn fuel leak

NASA again called off a launch of its mega moon rocket on Saturday, citing a stubborn fuel leak at the base of the rocket that couldn’t be stemmed after several attempts to seal it off. Artemis I launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson canceled the launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with about 2.5 hours remaining on the countdown clock. The launch attempt on Saturday was NASA’s second try to…

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tradermeximas · 2 years

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hits20radioonline · 2 years

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💥LA NASA HARÁ OTRO INTENTO DE LANZAR SU COHETE A LA LUNA EL SÁBADO💥 ✔La NASA hará un segundo intento de lanzar su nuevo potente cohete a la Luna el sábado, después de anular ayer el vuelo de prueba, que se canceló porque una prueba para conseguir que uno de los cuatro motores RS-25 del cohete alcanzara la temperatura adecuada para el lanzamiento no tuvo éxito. ✔Mike Sarafin, gerente de la misión Artemis 1 en la NASA, anunció la fecha para el nuevo intento de lanzamiento en una conferencia de prensa realizada este martes, informó la agencia AFP. ✔La directora de lanzamiento de la NASA, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, decidió cancelar el vuelo de Artemis ya que los ingenieros no pudieron resolver un problema suscitado en uno de los motores del cohete. Fuente Télam https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch7NmHoOj0F/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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alaturkanews · 2 years

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Watch Live: NASA holds briefing after postponing Artemis 1 launch | CBS News

NASA officials are holding a briefing after postponing its Artemis 1 test flight Monday due to an engine problem and other issues. Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson called off the countdown at 8:35 a.m. ET, two minutes after the two-hour launch window opened at 8:33 a.m., after unsuccessful attempts to resolve the hydrogen cooling issue on one of the Space Launch System moon rocket’s…

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awutar · 2 years

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NASA: the frustrated trip of Kamala Harris after the cancellation of the launch to the Moon; next date is september 2

September 2 at 12:48 p.m. ET starts the clock for the next Artemis I rocket launch attemptNASA’s plan to send astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. This Monday’s event was going to be led by Vice President kamala harriswhose office is responsible for US space missions. Nevertheless, Artemis I launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson reported the cancellation, due to an engine…

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bookmarkbrowse · 2 years

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How to watch NASA's Artemis 1 launch to the moon

How to watch NASA’s Artemis 1 launch to the moon

After months of testing, troubleshooting and repairs, engineers began working on space launch system lunar rocket A long-overdue test flight on Monday launched an unmanned Orion capsule on a 42-day orbit around the moon. After midnight, lightning-laden showers moved within 5 nautical miles of launch pad 39B, forcing launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson to delay the start of propellant…

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sciencespies · 2 years

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NASA Blazes a Path Back to the Moon With Artemis I Rocket Launch

https://sciencespies.com/news/nasa-blazes-a-path-back-to-the-moon-with-artemis-i-rocket-launch/

NASA Blazes a Path Back to the Moon With Artemis I Rocket Launch

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA’s majestic new rocket soared into space for the first time in the early hours of Wednesday, lighting up the night sky and accelerating on a journey that will take an astronaut-less capsule around the moon and back.

This flight, evoking the bygone Apollo era, is a crucial test for NASA’s Artemis program that aims to put astronauts, after five decades of loitering in low-Earth orbit, back on the moon.

“We are all part of something incredibly special,” Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director, said to her team at the Kennedy Space Center after the launch. “The first launch of Artemis. The first step in returning our country to the moon and on to Mars.”

For NASA, the mission ushers in a new era of lunar exploration, one that seeks to unravel scientific mysteries in the shadows of craters in the polar regions, test technologies for dreamed-of journeys to Mars and spur private enterprise to chase new entrepreneurial frontiers farther out in the solar system.

As China and other countries are vying to explore space, Wednesday’s launch also highlights a growing philosophical tension about how America should pursue its space aspirations. NASA has spent more than $40 billion to date to get Artemis off the ground. The expenditure illustrates how the space program continues to resemble the way that the Pentagon builds aircraft carriers and F-35 fighters — expensive and slow, but primarily controlled by the federal government because no commercial market yet exists for the kinds of large rockets and deep-space transports that NASA considers to be necessary for its moon exploration program.

At 1:47 a.m., the four engines on the rocket’s core stage along with two side boosters ignited and Artemis lifted from Earth. “I’m telling you we’d never seen such a tail of flame,” said Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator.Keegan Barber/NASA

The alternative approach, where NASA would be a customer or a passenger on commercial spacecraft, could be cheaper and faster, relying on innovative spacecraft built by entrepreneurial companies like SpaceX, led by Elon Musk.

“If you were serious about going back to the moon, you would just go all-in on commercial approaches,” said Charles Miller, who worked at NASA from 2009 to 2012 as a senior adviser for commercial space activities.

But the commercial approach might not exactly provide what NASA and other government decision makers want, and companies can often change plans or go out of business.

In the geopolitical background for policymakers is a growing competition with China, the only country that now has robotic spacecraft on the lunar surface. China last month completed construction of its own space station, and the country’s space officials aim to construct a research outpost on the moon and send astronauts there in the 2030s.

Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator, has warned that China could become the dominant lunar superpower, concerns that echo the jostling between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s that motivated the Apollo moon landings between 1969 and 1972.

Orion’s view of Earth, at a distance of about 50,000 miles, on its trip to the moon on Wednesday.NASA

While it may not have mollified the critics, the 322-foot-tall rocket, known as the Space Launch System, or S.L.S., was an imposing sight on the launchpad. However, with the middle-of-the-night launch time, the Florida Space Coast was not as jammed with spectators as it had been for earlier launch attempts.

Wednesday’s launch attempt followed two scrubbed launch attempts in August and September, one halted by an engine that appeared to be too warm, and the other involving a hydrogen leak in a fuel line. Hurricane Ian led NASA to skip another launch window in late September and early October, and Hurricane Nicole prompted a delay by a couple of days before Wednesday’s launch.

The countdown proceeded smoothly until a hydrogen leak in a new location popped up at about 9:15 p.m. A “red crew” of two technicians and a safety officer went to the launchpad to tighten bolts on a valve, which stemmed the leak.

A faulty Ethernet switch also disrupted the countdown, cutting off data from a radar needed to track the rocket. The U.S. Space Force, which ensures safety of rocket launches from the Kennedy Space Center, replaced the equipment, and the countdown resumed.

A final poll by Ms. Blackwell-Thompson confirmed the rocket was ready to go to space.

At 1:47 a.m., the four engines on the rocket’s core stage ignited, along with two skinnier side boosters. As the countdown hit zero, clamps holding the rocket down let go, and the vehicle slipped Earth’s bonds.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis’s launch director, during a briefing on Saturday.Kim Shiflett/NASA

At liftoff, flames from the engines were incredibly bright, like giant welding torches.

“I’m telling you we’d never seen such a tail of flame,” Mr. Nelson said.

As the rocket ascended, it produced a loud rumble of sound that rolled across the space center.

A few minutes later, the side boosters and then the giant core stage separated. The rocket’s upper engine then ignited to carry the Orion spacecraft, where astronauts will sit during later missions, toward orbit.

Less than two hours after launch, the upper stage fired one last time to send Orion on a path toward the moon. On Monday, Orion will pass within about 60 miles of the moon’s surface. After going around the moon for a couple of weeks, Orion will head back to Earth, splashing down on Dec. 11 in the Pacific Ocean, about 60 miles off the coast of California.

“We’ve laid the foundation for the Artemis program and many generations to come,” said John Honeycutt, the program manager for the Space Launch System rocket, in a news conference after the launch on Wednesday.

The next Artemis mission, which is to take four astronauts on a journey around the moon but not to the surface, will launch no earlier than 2024. Artemis III, in which two astronauts will land near the moon’s south pole, is currently scheduled for 2025, though that date is very likely to slip further into the future.

The Orion capsule for the Artemis III mission at the Kennedy Space Center. The mission is currently scheduled for 2025, although it is almost certain to be postponed.Chandan Khanna/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In a report last year, the NASA inspector general estimated that by the time that Artemis III had returned from the moon, NASA would have spent $93 billion on the program and that each launch of the Space Launch System and Orion would cost more than $4 billion. The cost overruns were caused in part by technical problems, mismanagement and NASA’s changing plans and schedules. And like the old Saturn V, the pricey Space Launch System rocket is used just once before falling into the ocean.

By streamlining the manufacturing, “We’re hoping to get it to a cost of about $2 billion,” per launch, Sharon Cobb, the associate program manager at NASA for the Space Launch System, said during an interview in August.

By contrast, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, while not as powerful as S.L.S., costs $90 million per launch. And SpaceX’s Starship, a giant next-generation rocket currently under development that is also central to NASA’s astronaut moon landing plans, is to be entirely reusable, and Mr. Musk has said, perhaps over-optimistically, a launch could eventually cost as little as $10 million.

For Artemis, NASA has taken a mix-and-match approach — a traditional program for the rocket and the crew capsule, and a commercial strategy for the lunar lander. NASA is purchasing from SpaceX, at a fixed price, a flight of Starship to serve as the lander for the Artemis III mission later in the decade. The Starship is to dock with Orion in orbit around the moon and take two astronauts to the surface near the lunar south pole.

An artist’s concept of Starship arriving at a moon base.SpaceX

The delays and cost overruns of S.L.S. and Orion highlight the shortcomings of how NASA has managed its programs, but Mr. Musk’s company, for all of the impressive technological leaps it has made so far, is also not guaranteed to solve all the development challenges of Starship as quickly as Mr. Musk might hope.

His company has been fantastically successful with its Falcon 9 rocket, following on NASA’s investment to take cargo and later astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The cargo contract provided a key infusion of money to Mr. Musk’s company, and bestowed NASA’s imprimatur of approval when SpaceX was still little known and largely unproven. It now dominates the satellite-launching business.

For NASA, this was a big win, too. Because NASA is just one of many customers for SpaceX, SpaceX can offer much lower costs.

Those successes, however, do not guarantee that Starship will also succeed. If SpaceX stumbles, NASA’s gamble on the company’s new spacecraft risks leaving the United States wasting its investment while still waiting for a moon lander for Artemis III.

Still, the sprawling expense of Artemis might be the cost of sustaining political support for a space program in a federal democracy, said Casey Dreier, the chief policy adviser for the Planetary Society, a nonprofit that promotes exploration of space. Even if Artemis is not the best or most efficient design, it provides jobs to the employees of NASA and aerospace companies across the country, he said. That provides continuing political support for the moon program.

“Congress has done nothing but add more money to Artemis every single year it’s been in existence,” Mr. Dreier said.

The rocket’s ascent early Wednesday. Congress has directed NASA to launch the S.L.S. at least once a year, and negotiations are underway with the rocket’s manufacturers for up to 20 more launches.Bill Ingalls/NASA

Politicians have so far faced little or no public outcry when voting to finance the Artemis missions. Even if it saved NASA money, the commercial approach could provoke greater opposition, feeding a perception that the agency has outsourced its space program to billionaires like Mr. Musk; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who started the rocket company Blue Origin; and Richard Branson, whose Virgin Galactic flies tourists on short suborbital flights.

Consider the ire of many people toward Mr. Bezos and Mr. Branson last year when they made suborbital trips to space built by the companies started with their wealth. That Mr. Branson and Mr. Bezos did not rely on federal financing to start their space tourism businesses did not assuage the anger that space seemed to be turning into the playground of the superwealthy.

Thus, a decision to turn to companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin could set off criticism that NASA was just adding to the wealth of billionaires who would one day escape from worldly troubles to private space stations and off-world colonies.

“By aligning our space program with very famous, idiosyncratic individuals, that could potentially be the bigger political risk, to me,” Mr. Dreier said.

Commercial space advocates argue that history does not back up this dystopian view. Rather, they point to entrepreneurs a century ago who transformed aviation from a luxury available to only a few into safe, affordable transportation for almost everyone.

While private spaceflight proponents believe their approach will prevail, no one in Congress has yet pushed for canceling S.L.S. or Orion. The CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law by President Biden, calls for NASA to include the vehicles in plans to send astronauts to Mars and directs the agency to launch S.L.S. at least once a year.

NASA is currently negotiating with the rocket’s manufacturers for up to 20 more launches.

“I think the program itself is shaping up to be very politically sustainable,” Mr. Dreier said. “I challenge people to show me the public anger about the S.L.S. program and how it translates to political pressure to cancel it. And I just don’t see it.”

How 3 NASA Missions Could Send Astronauts Back to the Moon

By the end of this decade, humans could walk on the moon once again. Here’s how NASA plans to send them there.

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