On the 16th of November, NASA launched the Artemis 1 Moon Mission, in the most powerful rocket the agency has ever created. The goal was to send a next-generation space capsule to the Moon and back, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a cruise around the moon. It’s the first time in fifty years that NASA flighted a crew-capable space moon ship, in what served as a test to see if the Orion spacecraft is ready to take astronauts to the lunar surface by 2025.
The launch had some setbacks, but they weren't enough to prevent the rocket from taking flight. The third time was the charm for Artemis 1, as the rocket took off under the watchful eyes of thousands of people from all around the world since the event was streamed by NASA and other channels.
Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said:
“We are all part of something incredibly special: The first launch of Artemis, the first step in returning our country to the moon and onto Mars. What you have done today will inspire generations to come”
Viewership stats
People from all around the world were very interested in watching the launch of Artemis 1. Since the two previous launches didn't go through due to technical problems, viewers wanted to see if this time the launch was going to happen. With Artemis 1 also being the most powerful rocket NASA has built until this day, and the mission being of significant importance to have astronauts back on the moon in the near future, people around the globe were glued to their screens.
Artemis 1 broadcast lasted almost 4 hours. It wasn't supposed to last so long, but as mentioned above the launch faced some setbacks that unfortunately delayed the takeoff. The broadcast had 383K Average Viewers, and 884K concurrent viewers gathered to see the big moment, where Artemis 1 thrust into the skies. Viewers watched the broadcast for 1.4 million hours.
NASA's official YouTube channel was the most watched and most popular of all that broadcasted the event, with 721K Peak Viewers and 1.1 million Hours Watched. In second place in both metrics was NASASpaceflight, an independent media organization covering spaceflight, and third place went to NASA's Twitch channel.
Interestingly, among other popular channels was AdrianFartade, is a popular Italian writer and content creator that makes content focused on astronomy and the astronautical sector, and his broadcast was the third most popular and most watched. YouTube was the platform of choice for viewers to watch the launch, and the English language was the most popular one.
Compared to other NASA events, the Artemis 1 Launch to the Moon is far from being the most popular one. It's 884K PV is a good number, but can’t compare to the great 4.1 million Peak Viewers achieved by NASA’s Perseverance Rover Land on Mars which happened in 2021, or the astonishing 10.1 million Peak Viewers of the NASA and SpaceX Launch Astronauts to Space!. However, the event was more popular than NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 Launch which also happened this year.
Despite not being the most popular event, the launch was a good step toward the goal of establishing a lunar base by the end of the 2020s, and can also help the agency when it comes to more ambitious plans like getting astronauts to Mars in the next two decades.
Header: The Launch Pad
