50 Fun Facts About Artemis Program

Which agency leads the Artemis program?

International partners contribute hardware such as Orion's European Service Module.

The program is named after the Greek goddess who is the twin sister of which god?

The name deliberately echoes NASA's 1960s Moon-landing program.

Which December 2017 presidential order formally established the program?

It called for a US-led human return to the Moon followed by missions to Mars.

Which NASA administrator announced the Artemis name in May 2019?

Two months earlier Vice President Pence had pulled the landing target forward to 2024.

Which cancelled NASA program supplied the Orion spacecraft and booster designs to Artemis?

Constellation's Ares I and Ares V rockets were cancelled in 2010.

What is the name of the rocket that launches Orion on Artemis missions?

Its core stage uses four RS-25 engines left over from the Space Shuttle era.

How many RS-25 engines power the SLS core stage?

They are the same engines that flew on the Space Shuttle orbiters.

Which company builds the SLS core stage?

It is assembled at NASA's Michoud facility in New Orleans.

At which NASA site in New Orleans is the SLS core stage built?

The 8.4-metre diameter matches the old Shuttle external tank.

Which company builds Orion's crew module?

Lockheed first proposed Orion as the Crew Exploration Vehicle in the early 2000s.

Who manufactures Orion's European Service Module?

It is built in Bremen with European Space Agency funding.

Orion's first uncrewed test flight in 2014 launched atop which rocket?

Exploration Flight Test-1 lasted four hours and 24 minutes.

In which month and year did Artemis I launch?

The launch had originally been pencilled in for late 2016.

What kind of path around the Moon did Orion follow for six days on Artemis I?

It spent about six days there before a second flyby and the trip home.

What was the name of the sensor-laden mannequin in Artemis I's commander seat?

It honoured Arturo Campos, an Apollo-era engineer.

Which cartoon character flew on Artemis I as the zero-g indicator?

A Shaun the Sheep toy rode along too, representing ESA's service module.

The phantom torsos Helga and Zohar on Artemis I measured what?

Zohar wore a protective AstroRad vest; Helga did not.

Which voice assistant was tested aboard Artemis I in the Callisto demonstration?

Lockheed Martin built it with Amazon and Cisco, and the public could send messages to its screen.

Artemis I splashed down 50 years to the day after which 1972 Moon landing?

The capsule came down in the Pacific west of Baja California on December 11, 2022.

What unexpected problem did Orion's heat shield show after Artemis I?

NASA kept the shield for Artemis II but steepened the reentry to shorten heating.

In which month of 2026 did Artemis II launch?

A helium-flow problem had forced a rollback to the assembly building in February.

Who commanded Artemis II?

He was the oldest person ever to fly around the Moon.

Which Artemis II crew member was the first woman to travel around the Moon?

She had earlier taken part in the first all-female spacewalk.

Which country did Artemis II mission specialist Jeremy Hansen represent?

It was his first spaceflight and the first trip beyond low Earth orbit by a non-American.

What name did the Artemis II crew give their Orion spacecraft?

They proposed naming a lunar crater after it during the flyby.

Whose distance record from Earth did the Artemis II crew break?

Orion reached 252,756 miles from Earth, about 4,100 miles beyond the 1970 mark.

What kind of path carried Artemis II around the Moon and home with no extra burn?

It resembled Apollo 13's path and needed no engine burn to come home.

What did the Artemis II crew observe shortly after their lunar flyby?

It lasted 57 minutes and revealed the corona along with meteoroid impact flashes on the Moon.

Which Navy ship recovered the Artemis II crew after splashdown?

It was the first Navy recovery of a NASA crew since Apollo–Soyuz in 1975.

The zero-gravity indicator 'Rise' on Artemis II was designed by whom?

Lucas Ye's plush toy floated free once the crew reached orbit.

Under NASA's 2026 replan, where was Artemis III slated to test lunar landers?

The mission is compared to Apollo 9, which tested the lunar module near Earth.

In NASA's 2026 plan, which mission was to make the first crewed Moon landing since 1972?

It was targeted for 2028 and required a lander to be placed in lunar orbit first.

Which company's Starship was selected in April 2021 to build the first Human Landing System?

The fixed-price contract was worth US$2.89 billion and triggered a Blue Origin lawsuit.

How much was the 2021 Starship HLS contract worth?

It covered development plus one uncrewed and one crewed demonstration landing.

Which lander did NASA select in May 2023 as the second Human Landing System?

Blue Origin's contract was worth about US$3.4 billion.

What was the program's planned station in orbit around the Moon called?

NASA paused it in March 2026 in favour of a surface base.

Which company was chosen in 2020 to build the Gateway's HALO habitation module?

The design was based on its Cygnus cargo spacecraft.

Which type of path around the Moon was chosen for the Gateway station?

It was chosen because Orion's service module could not leave low lunar orbit on its own.

On what date were the Artemis Accords first signed?

Ukraine's space agency signed exactly one month later.

How many countries were founding signatories of the Artemis Accords?

Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the UAE, the UK and the US.

Which 1967 UN agreement do the Artemis Accords claim to uphold?

Critics say allowing signatories to claim extracted resources breaches that treaty's ban on appropriation.

Near which two craters did NASA's 2020 Artemis Base Camp concept place the outpost?

The South Pole site is prized for water ice in permanently shadowed floors.

How many candidate South Pole landing regions did NASA identify in 2022?

They were shortlisted for the initial landing and inspection missions.

Which country agreed in 2024 to build a pressurized lunar rover in exchange for astronaut seats?

Two Japanese astronauts could become the first non-Americans on the lunar surface.

Which company is developing the AxEMU lunar spacesuit?

Collins Aerospace withdrew from its suit contract in 2024.

What colour are the Orion Crew Survival System launch-and-entry suits?

The high-visibility shade helps recovery crews spot astronauts against sea and sky.

A 2021 NASA Inspector General audit put the program's cost through 2025 at about how much?

The White House had requested $25.2 billion a year for NASA in 2021.

Which second man on the Moon has criticised NASA's outpost plan and backed 'Moon Direct'?

Moon Direct is Robert Zubrin's alternative to the Gateway approach.

After cancelling SLS Block 1B in 2026, which upper stage did NASA pick over the ICPS?

NASA cancelled the Block 1B and Block 2 upgrades in February 2026, dropping the Exploration Upper Stage.

Artemis II's objectives are most often compared with which 1968 mission?

Both were first crewed flights around the Moon, though Artemis II did not enter orbit.