Gerry Palmers Science 08.03.2022 22:Aug PM EDT

Here are Some of the 10,000 Mementos Flying on the Artemis 1 Moon Mission

Mementos from the Apollo 11 mission are set to make a return trip to the Moon, as they are set to be part of the official fight kit (OFK)of NASA's upcoming Artemis mission to the Moon.

Among these priceless Apollo 11 artifacts include a small lunar sample and rocket piece that started the collection. These are just two items among 10,000 mementos in the OFK that will fly on Artemis moon mission.

What is the OFK?

Flying mementos of past missions has been a practice since the Apollo 17 mission, NASA's last lunar trek on December 1972. The OFK in is a package of a specified size and weight used to fly commemorative items and tokens of gratitude for those part of the mission. The OFK is the lunar mission counterpart of the personal preference kits (PPK) in space missions, which are brought by astronauts containing small items for family and friends.

Artemis 1 may be crewless, but the OFK will be part of an important mission. The mission is the first integrated test of NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket(opens in new tab), a precursor to flying astronauts on future missions to the moon. It has taken, and will continue to take, thousands of people working on the ground to make the flight a success. More than a month long, Artemis 1 will travel farther into space than any previous human-rated mission and enter a distant retrograde orbit before returning to Earth.

Artemis 1 'Placeholder' Launch Dates'

Three "placeholder" launch dates have been set for Artemis 1: Aug. 29, Sept. 2 and Sept. 5. These dates are pending repairs and tweaks, however, to the Space Launch System rocket and related systems in light of results from a "wet dress rehearsal" June 20 that NASA declared a success, officials said in a teleconference with media held on Wednesday (July 20).

Artemis 1 is an uncrewed test flight around the moon that serves a testing keystone for upcoming human missions to the moon.

The mentioned dates are not a NASA commitment, says a top NASA official.

NASA will make a firmer commitment when the U.S. space agency finishes a standard flight readiness review of the Artemis 1 spacecraft pack, which include the Space Launc system (SLS|) and the Orion capsule placed on top of the rocket.

NASA's Artemis team is working on the interim dates in late August and early September, but the U.S. space agency has a lot of work to do, and learn from, which includes close-outs.

Close-outs refer to interim approvals on key systems necessary for launch, the flight to the moon and return for a splashdown on Earth. NASA holds a checklist of items to complete on the SLS stack before it departs the Vehicle Assembly Building in NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where work is ongoing to fix probems encountered during the wet dress rehearsal.

rtemis 1's most recent wet dress rehearsal was deemed acceptable by NASA to proceed with launch preparations. Engineers fueled the SLS to full capacity for the first time during the three-day test. But the Artemis team faced a hydrogen leak from the "umbilical" line of the core stage's engine cooling system.