This Week @NASA: Artemis II Moon Mission Astronauts, Stunning Rings of Uranus, New Mars Sample

Introducing the crew of NASA’s Artemis II Moon mission …

Lighting up an Artemis rocket engine …

And a new image of a distant planet …

A few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

Introducing the Crew of the Artemis II Moon Mission

“Ladies and Gentlemen. Your Artemis II crew!” — Administrator Announces Crew

During an April 3 event near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston, NASA introduced NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Hammock Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen, as the crew for Artemis II. It will be the first Artemis mission to fly astronauts around the Moon and back on NASA’s Orion spacecraft, to validate the systems, capabilities, and techniques needed for humans to live and work in deep space.

“Together we will usher in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreamers. To the Moon, to Mars, and beyond. (applause)” — Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator

Learn more about Artemis II at nasa.gov/artemis-ii.

NASA successfully conducted a 10-minute hot fire of an RS-25 certification engine on March 21, surpassing the required power levels and duration for SLS missions, ensuring the engine’s safety and performance capabilities. Credit: NASA/Stennis

Hot Fire Certification Test of RS-25 Engine

Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center conducted a hot fire of an RS-25 rocket engine on April 5. It was the fifth hot fire of a 12-test series to certify the production of new engines. Four RS-25s will help power NASA’s Space Launch System rocket on future Artemis missions to the Moon.

This zoomed-in image of Uranus, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on February 6, 2023, reveals stunning views of the planet’s rings. The planet displays a blue hue in this representative-color image, made by combining data from two filters (F140M, F300M) at 1.4 and 3.0 microns, which are shown here as blue and orange, respectively. Credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Webb Scores New Image of Distant Uranus

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured this new image of Uranus that highlights the planet’s dramatic rings and bright atmospheric features. The data demonstrate Webb’s sensitivity for the distant planet’s faintest dusty rings, which have only been imaged by two other facilities besides Webb.

This image shows the rocky outcrop the Perseverance science team calls Berea after the NASA Mars rover extracted a rock core and abraded a circular patch. The image was taken by the rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument on March 30, 2023. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Perseverance Collects First Mars Sample of New Science Campaign

NASA’s Perseverance rover recently collected and stored the first sample of the mission’s newest science campaign. The sample came from a rock the science team calls “Berea” that is located near the top of Jezero Crater’s delta on Mars.

That’s what’s up this week @NASA