Artemis I Launch Day VIP Activities

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, far right, visits with Congresswoman (TX) Eddie Bernice Johnson, center, during launch countdown activities for NASA’s Artemis I mission on Aug. 29, 2022, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch was waved off for the day. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human presence to the Moon and beyond. The primary goal of Artemis I is to thoroughly test the integrated systems before crewed missions by operating the spacecraft in a deep space environment, testing Orion’s heat shield, and recovering the crew module after reentry, descent, and splashdown.