NASA kicks off 2022 with a bang.
The completion of the space agency’s Artemis 1 mission, the successful first launch of its new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the return of the uncrewed Orion capsule after its journey around the Moon, marks the end of the year for NASA. 2022.
Former Senator and current NASA Administrator Bill Nelson recently said in a video released by NASA at the beginning of the new year. “’22 will go down in the history books as one of the most successful years [in] all of NASA history,” Nelson says, adding that the past year has kicked off the “Golden Age of Space Exploration.”
video is calledNASA in 2023: A Look Ahead (opens in new tab)“And it serves as a teaser for what to expect from the space agency in the coming year. In it, Nelson highlights the upcoming Tempo climate satellite, and in his narration on images from NASA’s X” “game-changing aeronautics developments”. The -59 “low-boom” supersonic jet and the X-57 all-electric plane prototype. And, with a wider shot of the current astronaut selection pool, Nelson says that by 2023 he The year will be when the crew for Artemis 2 will be selected.
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“There’s a lot more coming,” says Nelson, before the background music video moves into a montage of notable space achievements to look back on for the next year. To NASA’s credit, there is a good reason this video was made, as several major spaceflight, astronomy, and aeronautical developments are planned for 2023.
The first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is set for April, adding a second US option for ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). OSIRIS-Rex, NASA’s asteroid sample return mission, is scheduled to return to Earth this September with samples from asteroid Bennu, and PSYCHE, another asteroid mission, will launch in October to study the metal-rich asteroid, possibly a Remnant of the protoplanetary core.
The video highlights upcoming robotic lunar missions, ongoing crew and ongoing cargo missions to the ISS, as well as ongoing science that will take place aboard the station, contract awards for Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services and the Artemis mission. Another manned lander system and the impending disclosure of the Artemis spacesuit prototype.
Nelson ends the video with a quote from Carl Sagan. “Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we still are wanderers. We have stayed on the shores of the cosmic ocean long enough. We are finally ready to set sail for the stars,” Nelson read aloud, adding, “We have begun the journey to the stars. Now we are going to reach the unreachable stars.” An image of the Moon becomes Mars as the music ends, and the last full fifteen seconds of video is of the Red Planet spinning across the screen.
NASA’s video shows that 2023 is going to be a great year for space.
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