SLS cubesats
A NASA image shows 9 of the 13 cubesats originally planned to fly on the Artemis 1 mission installed in their payload adapters. At least one cubesat will not be ready in time for the mission. Credit: NASA/Cory Huston

WASHINGTON — The first flight of the Space Launch System will carry along with the Orion spacecraft 10 cubesats intended to carry out missions from prospecting for lunar ice to flying by an asteroid — if they’re not dead on arrival.

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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...