NASA 2022 calendar: 11 space missions and projects to look forward to - Inverse

And of course, there was the long-awaited launch of the James Webb Space Telescope to close out the year on December 25.

But many of NASA’s 2021 accomplishments will carry over into 2022, and of course, there are some pretty big missions scheduled to finally get going this year as well, not least of which being NASA’s new Moon program, Artemis.

The first uncrewed test flight of the combined launch system and spacecraft NASA hopes will return astronauts to the Moon is currently scheduled for March or April of 2022.

Consisting of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) heavy rocket and the Orion spacecraft, Artemis 1 will make multiple close passes by the Moon during a four-to-six-week mission in preparation for Artemis II, a crewed flyby currently scheduled for May 2024.

NASA originally scheduled the Artemis 1 launch for February 12, but testing issues with the SLS led the agency to delay the mission in December.

SpaceX has been flying astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program since November 2020, but Boeing’s Commercial Crew contract-winning spacecraft, the Starliner, has been delayed following a computer error during its first uncrewed orbital test flight in 2019.

Boeing’s second attempt at a successful, uncrewed orbital test flight is now scheduled for launch sometime in May.

Psyche the spacecraft is currently scheduled to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on August 1 and will enter orbit around 16 Psyche in January 2026.

Gaia is a European Space Agency observatory, but the data it collects could have a significant impact on NASA projects such as the James Webb Space Telescope.