NASA Showcases 2022's Achievements In Stunning Video

Photo Credit: NASA

The year 2022 has been extraordinary for NASA, and to celebrate these moments, the space agency has released a highlights reel. The video featured NASA's chief Bill Nelson's speech at an event at Rice University.

The two-minute video shows memorable moments from 2022, including the James Webb Space Telescope's breathtaking images of the cosmos and the successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The latter crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, paving the way for planetary defense systems to save earthlings from potentially hazardous asteroid strikes.

NASA's Growing Space Ambitions

Meanwhile, NASA's Perseverance rover and Ingenuity chopper have continued their missions on Mars, while astronauts continued carrying out scientific research aboard the International Space Station (ISS), 250 miles above Earth.

Besides, the marquee space agency finally launched the most powerful rocket -- Space Launch System (SLS). The rocket will be crucial for the new era of space exploration that kicked off with the Artemis I mission.

The SLS carried an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to the lunar orbit, where it came within just 80 miles of the Moon's surface. NASA will send a crewed mission on the same path a couple of years from now and will put astronauts on the lunar surface with the Artemis III mission.

"Throughout America's story, there are defining days," Nelson said in the video. "Days when minds change, hearts fill, and imaginations soar. Days when visions transform the trajectory of the American story, which is our story."

Permanent Base On The Moon

NASA's main aim with the Artemis program is to set up a permanent base on the lunar surface. It will also lay the groundwork for the space agency's first crewed mission to Mars. It would be possible if scientists manage to effectively mine the Moon's water ice and create rocket fuel from it.

The first crewed mission to the Moon was sent in 1969. The program was called off after several successful Apollo missions, kicking off a new era of space exploration. However, NASA believes that more recent technology and commercial partnerships will push human space exploration to new limits.