Artemis I Mission Timeline

Mission Overview

Launch date: Nov. 16, 2022

Mission duration: 25 days, 10 hours, 53 minutes

Total distance traveled: 1.4 million miles

Re-entry speed: 24,581 mph (Mach 32)

Splashdown: Dec. 11, 2022

Flight Day 1

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Launch	000/00:00:00
Max dynamic pressure	000/00:01:10
Solid rocket booster separation	000/00:02:12
Service module fairing jettison	000/00:03:11
Launch abort system jettison	000/00:03:16
Core stage main engine cutoff commanded	000/00:08:03
Core stage/Interim cryogenic propulsion stage separation	000/00:08:03
Orion solar array wing deploy begins	000/00:18:09– approx. 12 min duration
Perigee raise maneuver	000/00:52:56
Trans-lunar injection burn	000/01:29:27
Orion/Interim cryogenic propulsion stage separation	000/01:57:36
Outbound trajectory correction burn-1	000/07:47:31

Other events:

• 10 CubeSats deployed by timer from an adapter still attached to the SLS’s upper stage. Each CubeSat has different timelines for acquiring a signal with its mission operators.
• Flight controllers performed a modal survey, a test to verify that the models and simulations used to design Orion’s solar array wings accurately reflect the motion that is occurring in flight.
• This was accomplished by firing Orion’s reaction control system thrusters and observing how the solar array wings react to that specific firing sequence.
• Engineers also calibrated the optical navigation system and gathered imagery using the spacecraft’s cameras.
• Flight controllers moved each solar array to a different position as INCO tested the WiFi transfer rate between the camera on the tip of the solar array panels and the camera controller. The goal was to determine the best position to most efficiently transfer imagery files.

Flight Day 2

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Outbound trajectory correction burn-2	001/04:47:31

Other events:

• Teams collected additional images with the optical navigation camera
• Activated the Callisto payload

Flight Day 3

Other events:

• Orion maneuvered its solar arrays and captured the Moon with a camera mounted on the end of the array.
• Orion spacecraft is now more than halfway to the Moon.  
• Flight controllers used Orion’s cameras to inspect the crew module thermal protection system and European Service Module.
• Over the first few days of the mission, a team assessed anomalous star tracker data that correlated with thruster firings. Teams now understand the readings and there are no operational changes.
• All 10 CubeSats were successfully deployed via timer from the adapter.

Flight Day 4

Other events:

• Flight controllers moved each solar array to a different position to test the strength of the WiFi signal with the arrays in different configurations. INCO tested the WiFi transfer rate between the camera on the tip of the solar array panels and the camera controller.
• The Emergency, Environmental, and Consumables Manager, or EECOM, tested Orion’s radiator system.
• GNC performed the first of several tests of the star trackers that support Orion’s navigation system. In previous flight days, engineers evaluated initial data to understand star tracker readings correlated to thruster firings.  
• Overnight, engineers in mission control will uplink large data files to Orion to better understand how much time it takes for the spacecraft to receive sizeable files.

Flight Day 5

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Outbound trajectory correction burn-3	004/06:40:14

Other events:

• Flight controllers in the White Flight Control Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston captured additional imagery of the Moon using the optical navigation camera. 
• The spacecraft entered into the lunar sphere of influence at 1:09 p.m. CST, making the Moon, instead of Earth, the main gravitational force acting on the spacecraft. 
• One team is currently looking at the star tracker system to understand a number of faults in the random access memory, which have been successfully recovered with power cycles.
• A second team is analyzing a few instances in which one of eight units located in the service module that provides solar array power to the crew module, called a power conditioning and distribution unit umbilical latching current limiter, opened without a command.

Flight Day 6

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Outbound trajectory correction burn-4	005/00:40:14
Outbound powered flyby burn	005/06:40:14

Other events:

• Orion completed the outbound powered flyby at 6:44 a.m., passing about 81 miles above the surface at 6:57 a.m.
• The spacecraft speed increased from 2,128 mph before the burn to 5,102 mph after the burn.
• Shortly after the outbound flyby burn, the spacecraft passed about 1,400 miles above the Apollo 11 landing site at Tranquility Base at 7:37 a.m.
• Orion later flew over the Apollo 14 site at about 6,000 miles in altitude and then over the Apollo 12 site at an altitude of about 7,700 miles 

Flight Day 7

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Outbound trajectory correction burn-5	006/00:40:14

Other events:

• The team in the White Flight Control Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston continued testing the spacecraft’s star trackers to determine their sensitivity to thermal variations as part of planned testing, and engineers used the optical navigation system to gather additional imagery of the Moon. 
• Overnight, flight controllers will conduct the search acquire and track (SAT) mode developmental test objective.
• Orion will exit the lunar sphere of influence, or the gravitational pull of the Moon, at 10:31 p.m. CST and continue traveling toward distant retrograde orbit. 

Flight Day 8

Other events:

• Orion continues to travel farther away from the Moon as it prepares to enter a distant retrograde orbit.
• NASA’s Mission Control Center at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston unexpectedly lost data to and from the spacecraft at 12:09 a.m. for 47 minutes while reconfiguring the communication link between Orion and Deep Space Network. Teams have resolved the issue, and the spacecraft remains in a healthy configuration while engineers analyze data to determine the cause. 
• While in transit to the distant retrograde orbit, engineers conducted the first part of the propellant tank slosh development flight test, called prop slosh, which is scheduled during quiescent, or less active, parts of the mission.

Flight Day 9

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Outbound trajectory correction burn-6	008/15:48:27

Other events:

• Orion is now about one day away from entering into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon
• During the last day in the transit to distant retrograde orbit, flight controllers performed a third in a series of planned star tracker development flight tests relative to the Sun, with a fourth planned for tomorrow.
• Overnight, engineers will begin a 24-hour test of the reaction control system engines to evaluate engine performance for standard and non-standard thruster configurations.

Flight Day 10

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Distant retrograde orbit insertion burn	009/15:48:27

Other events:

• Flight Controllers in the White Flight Control Room at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston successfully performed a burn to insert Orion into a distant retrograde orbit
• Shortly before conducting the burn, Orion was traveling more than 57,00  miles above the lunar surface, marking the farthest distance it will reach from the Moon during the mission.

Flight Day 11

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Orbital maneuver burn-1	010/15:48:27

Other events:

• Orion surpassed the distance record for a mission with a spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space and back to Earth, at 7:42 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 26. 

Flight Day 12

Other events:

• On the 12th day of the Artemis I mission, team members conducted another planned test of the star trackers aboard Orion as it continued along a distant retrograde orbit of the Moon, and began another reaction control thruster flight test. 
• Engineers began a development flight test objective today that changed the minimum jet firing time for the reaction control thrusters over a period of 24 hours. 
• Teams also activated and interacted with the Callisto payload

Flight Day 13

Events	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Orbital maneuver burn-2	012/15:48:27

Other events:

• Orion reached the farthest distance from Earth it will travel during the Artemis I mission — 268,563 miles from our home planet — just after 3 p.m. CST.
• The spacecraft also captured imagery of Earth and the Moon together throughout the day, including of the Moon appearing to eclipse Earth. 
• Engineers had originally planned an orbital maintenance burn today but determined it was not necessary because of Orion’s already precise trajectory in distant retrograde orbit.
• Managers also closed out today a team formed earlier in the mission to investigate readings associated with the spacecraft’s star trackers after determining the hardware is performing as expected and initially suspect readings are a byproduct of the flight environment

Flight Day 14

Other events:

• Engineers continued with the jet firing development flight test objective that began on flight day 12.
• Today, teams demonstrated the “low” portion of the reaction control thruster firing time range.
• GNC performed the sixth of eight planned tests of the star trackers that support Orion’s navigation system.
• A new flight test objective was added to flight day 14 to collect additional information on the thermal characterization of Orion.

Flight Day 15

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Orbital maneuver burn-3	014/15:49:56

Other events:

• The Artemis I mission management team met today to review the overall status of the flight test and polled “go” for Orion to depart from its distant retrograde orbit, where it has been since Nov. 25.
• Teams also elected to add four additional test objectives to Orion’s return trip to Earth to gather additional data on the spacecraft’s capabilities. Two will evaluate whether opening and closing a valve the pressure control assembly affects a slow leak rate in that system; a third will demonstrate Orion’s ability to perform attitude maneuvers at the rate that will be necessary for a test on Artemis II; and the fourth will test its capability to fly in a three degree of freedom attitude control mode, as opposed to the six degree of freedom mode it typically flies in.

Flight Day 16

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Distant retrograde orbit departure	015/15:49:56
Return trajectory correction burn-1	015/21:49:56

Other events:

• Orion has left its distant lunar orbit and is on its return journey home.
• Teams also continued thermal tests of the star trackers during their eighth and final planned test.

Flight Day 17

Other events:

• Teams collected additional images with Orion’s optical navigation camera and downlinked a wide variety of data files to the ground, including data from the Hybrid Electronic Radiation Assessor, or HERA. 

Flight Day 18

Other events:

• Orion re-entered the lunar sphere of influence at 4:45 p.m. CST Saturday, Dec. 3, making the Moon the main gravitational force acting on the spacecraft. Entry into the lunar sphere of entry occurred when the spacecraft was about 39,993 miles from the lunar surface. 
• Orion re-entered the lunar sphere of influence at 4:45 p.m. CST Saturday, Dec. 3, making the Moon the main gravitational force acting on the spacecraft. Entry into the lunar sphere of entry occurred when the spacecraft was about 39,993 miles from the lunar surface. 
• Orion will be out of communication with NASA’s Deep Space Network for about 4.5 hours from 7:40 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. while network teams reconfigure ground stations. 

Flight Day 19

Events	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Return trajectory correction burn-2	018/10:24:00

Other events:

• Orion performed the second return trajectory correction burn on Sunday, Dec. 4, at 10:43 a.m. CST, using the auxiliary thrusters and increasing the spacecraft’s velocity by 1.16 mph (1.71 feet per second).  
• Shortly after acquiring signal with the Deep Space Network’s Canberra ground station at 12:41 a.m. CST, Orion experienced an issue with a power conditioning distribution unit (PCDU), in which four of the latching current limiters responsible for downstream power were switched off. 
• The spacecraft obtained additional data using its optical navigation system, which is a sensitive camera to take images of the Moon and Earth to help orient the spacecraft by looking at the size and position of the celestial bodies in the images.

Flight Day 20

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Return trajectory correction burn-3	019/04:24:00
Returned powered flyby burn	019/10:24:00

Other events:

• The spacecraft made its second and final close approach to the Moon at 10:43 a.m. CST Monday, Dec. 5, just before its return powered flyby burn, passing 80.6 miles above the lunar surface.  
• The mission management team convened and polled “go” to deploy recovery assets off the coast of California ahead of Orion’s splashdown on Dec. 11.

Flight Day 21

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Return trajectory correction burn-4	020/04:24:00

Other events:

• Orion exited the lunar sphere of gravitational influence Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 1:29 a.m. CST for the last time on the Artemis I mission. Earth’s force of gravity is now the primary gravitational force acting on the spacecraft. 
• Flight controllers used Orion’s cameras to inspect the crew module thermal protection system and European Service Module, the second of three planned external spacecraft inspections. 

Flight Day 22

Other events:

• Engineers conducted the second part of the propellant tank slosh development flight test, called propellant slosh, which is scheduled during quiescent, or less active, parts of the mission.

Flight Day 23

Other events:

• The mission management team met with the entry flight director and NASA recovery director as the planned splashdown of Orion Sunday, Dec. 11 is now about 72 hours away.
• They evaluated the weather and decided on a landing site in the Pacific Ocean near Guadalupe Island, south of the primary landing area.
• Later tonight, flight controllers will conduct a final survey of Orion’s crew module and service module using cameras on each of the spacecraft’s four solar arrays.

Flight Day 24

Other events:

• Teams in Mission Control Houston conducted spacecraft system checks ahead of Orion’s planned splashdown on Dec. 11, while the Exploration Ground Systems recovery team made its way toward the landing area off the Baja Coast near Guadalupe Island.
• Flight controllers activated the crew module reaction control system heater and conducted a hot-fire test for each thruster as planned. 

Flight Day 25

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Return trajectory correction burn-5	024/14:15:49

Other events:

• The Orion spacecraft is on its last full day in space with splashdown off the Baja Coast near Guadalupe Island targeted for 11:39 a.m. CST (12:39 p.m. EST) on Sunday, Dec. 11. 
• Engineers conducted the final Artemis I in-space developmental flight test objective to characterize temperature impacts on solar array wings from plumes, or exhaust gases. 
• Recovery forces have arrived on location off the coast of Baja where they will stand by to greet the spacecraft after its re-entry back into the atmosphere at 25,000 mph.

Flight Day 26

Event	Mission Elapsed Time (MET)
Return trajectory correction burn-6	025/06:15:49
Crew module/service module separation	025/10:55:50
Crew module raise burn	025/10:59:20
Targeted entry interface	025/11:15:49
Crew module entry interface	025/11:15:52
Splashdown	025/11:36:27

Other events:

• NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully completed a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 9:40 PST, 12:40 EST as the final major milestone of the Artemis I mission. Engineers will perform several additional tests while Orion is in the water and before powering down the spacecraft and handing it over to the recovery team aboard the USS Portland.