NASA’s Artemis I mission launched in 2022 to test the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft on an uncrewed Moon flight.
Artemis I lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 16, 2022. It was the first integrated flight of NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, and the Orion spacecraft. Orion traveled around the Moon and returned to Earth, testing systems needed for later crewed missions.
The spacecraft reached a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon before departing for home. Orion splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off Baja California on December 11, 2022, after a mission lasting 25 days, 10 hours and 53 minutes.
Artemis I carried no astronauts, although it transported mannequins and research payloads. Artemis II is the crewed follow-up mission, planned to carry astronauts around the Moon. Apollo 8 is another common mix-up because it was the first crewed mission to orbit the Moon, but it flew in 1968 using the Saturn V rocket and Apollo spacecraft.