page_title: Artemis 1
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Artemis 1 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Overview of the mission plan for Artemis 1
context_page_description: Artemis 1 is a planned uncrewed test flight for NASA's Artemis program that is the first integrated flight of the agency's Orion MPCV and Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. It is expected to launch in November 2021.
  Formerly known as Exploration Mission-1, the mission was renamed after the introduction of the Artemis program. The launch will be held at Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, where an Orion spacecraft will be sent on a mission of 25.5 days, 6 of those days in a retrograde orbit around the Moon. The mission will certify the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket for crewed flights beginning with the second flight test of the Orion and Space Launch System, Artemis 2, which will carry a crew of four around the Moon in 2023 for a week-long mission and back prior to the assembly of the Gateway.
context_section_description: The flight now named Artemis 1, was originally named by NASA Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) in 2012, when it was set to launch in 2017 as the first planned flight of the Space Launch System and the second uncrewed test flight of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle where Orion was to perform a circumlunar trajectory during a seven-day mission. Before then, this initial flight had been referred to as Space Launch System 1 or SLS-1. 
  On 16 January 2013, NASA announced that the European Space Agency will build the European Service Module based on its Automated Transfer Vehicle, so the flight could also be regarded as a test of ESA hardware as well as American, and of how the ESA components interact with the American Orion components.
  The Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) flight article was consciously constructed in a way that if all the missing components (seats, life support systems) were added, it would not meet the mass target.
  In January 2015, NASA and Lockheed announced that the primary structure in the Orion spacecraft would be up to 25% lighter compared to the previous one. This would be achieved by reducing the number of cone panels from six (EFT-1) to three (EM-1), reducing the total number of welds from 19 to 7, saving the additional mass of the weld material. Other savings would be due to revisiting its various components and wiring. For Artemis 1, the Orion spacecraft will be outfitted with a complete life support system and crew seats, but will be left uncrewed. On the seats, two mannequins will be strapped and used as radiation imaging phantoms.
  Prior to April 2017, the planned initial launch date had slipped to November 2018, and in April 2017, NASA delayed the planned date to "sometime in 2019." In the event, the 2019 planned launch date did not hold, and the maiden launch of SLS was subsequently further delayed; as of May 2020, it is currently planned for 2021.
caption: View of the Artemis 1 mission as it was planned in May 2019
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