According to White House officials, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Second Gentleman will visit Kennedy Space Center on Monday for the Artemis I launch.
During their visit, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will tour Artemis II and Artemis III mission hardware. Harris plans to speak to the news media about the historical significance of the Artemis Program, which will send the first woman and person of color to the moon, and discuss the United States leadership in space exploration.
A United States president or vice president has not visited Brevard for a launch since 2020, when former President Donald Trump traveled to Kennedy Space Center for SpaceX’s Demo-2 test mission on May 30 of that year.
The launch, which carried a two-man crew of Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, was the first time astronauts traveled to the International Space Station in a commercial spacecraft rather than one owned and operated by a government space agency.
Artemis I and its uncrewed Orion capsule launch is scheduled for 8:33 a.m. Monday. The capsule will go on a 42-day flight in lunar orbit before splashing into Earth.
The rocket is NASA’s most powerful rocket and will pave the way for crewed versions of the rocket, Artemis II and Artemis III. It’s the first step in the mission to return to the moon, where NASA plans to establish a long-term presence before moving on to Mars.
