Amateur radio operators and more will track NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission

Amateur radio operators will join a powerful international network tracking NASA’s Orion spacecraft after it launches toward the moon this month.

NASA officials announced that a network of 18 volunteers, organizations and space agencies will assist with tracking Artemis 1, which will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to orbit around the moon after blasting off from Earth atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Launch is set for no earlier than Nov. 14.

The selected volunteers, including two individuals in the amateur radio community, will “demonstrate whether they can receive Orion’s signal, and use their respective ground antennas to passively track and measure changes in the radio waves transmitted by Orion,” NASA officials said in a statement(opens in new tab) on Monday (Oct. 31). 

“These measurements will be made during three distinct phases of Orion’s approximately 25-day mission: the journey to the moon, its orbit above the lunar surface and the journey back to Earth,” agency officials added.  

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