ARTEMIS 1 MISSION UPDATE: Flight Readiness Review: Launch:

 The flight readiness review (FRR) for the Artemis 1 lunar test mission, which was held last Monday (22nd) and has cleared the way for the mission to proceed. Artemis 1 will launch next Monday August 29th at 8.33 am (EDT) - 1.33 pm (Irish Summer Time) with a 2 hour window. There are backup launch opportunities on September 2nd  5th. If Artemis 1 launches as scheduled the mission duration will be 42 days with the splashdown of the Orion Crew Module on October 10th. The SLS mega rocket will place the Orion spacecraft and the modified Delta IV upper stage in a parking orbit between 28 and 32 degrees inclination (same as Apollo); the RL 10 of the upper stage will be restarted, just like the Saturn V third stage, for the Trans Lunar Injection burn.  After the separation of the Orion spacecraft from the upper stage, 10 micro probes will be released from a cargo space in the spacecraft adapter (like that used to house the Lunar Module for the Apollo missions) and these tiny research satellites will enter Lunar or deep space Solar orbits.  Unlike Apollo, the Orion spacecraft will enter a retrograde HALO rectilinear orbit with a perigee 3000 Km above the Moon’s North Pole and an apogee of 70,000 Km. This orbit is intended for the Lunar Gateway Station and will use the Earth - Moon Lagrange points to create a stable orbit which will require little reboost. This mission is an automated test of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft with 3 “smart” mannequins instead of the crew. The giant rocket is a reconfiguration of the Shuttle Launch System as Space Launch System (SLS), with an enlarged and re-engineered Shuttle ET as the core, extended Solid Rocket Booster (5 segments) and 4 flight proven Shuttle main engines (RS-25) in a module at the base of the core along with a modified Delta IV upper stage. The Orion spacecraft has an American Crew Module and European Service Module which provides power, life support and propulsion. If successful the mission will be repeated as Artemis 2 with four astronauts in 2024 and will be followed by Artemis 3 in 2025. The Artemis 3 mission which will carry out a crewed demonstration landing of the SpaceX lander (a modified Starship). This will be the first landing since Apollo 17; the first woman and 13th man will remain on the lunar surface for 6 days. The launch will be streamed live on NASA TV and the NASA channel on YouTube ( www.youtube.com/c/nasa ) 
Photos: Credit NASA

John that's brilliant and thanks for sharing, we live in the most exciting times!

In truth rocket technology hasn't really advanced very much since 1967's Apollo 4 which was the equivalent Apollo. They're better of course, but the improvement in cameras is astronomical by comparison and we are going to see more and much better pictures than anything Apollo was capable of!