Livestream of Artemis 1 mission sells out TELUS Spark

A plane passes in front of a full moon Wednesday, July 13, 2022, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Some space-crazed Calgarians who were hoping to watch the Artemis rocket launch from TELUS Spark's Infinity Dome early Monday morning will have to make a Plan B.

TELUS Spark announced Friday that its free Aug.29 crack-of-dawn livestream of  the Artemis 1 moon rocket launch, which will be shown inside the 360-degree Infinity Dome, sold out within a few hours of being made available to the public.

According to a TELUS spokesperson, they went on sale around 4 p.m. Thursday and were fully sold out by 9 p.m.

The rocket launch is scheduled to take place at 6:33 a.m. Monday morning, although there's a launch window between 6:33 and 8:33 a.m.

If weather or technical issues prevents the launch from taking place Monday, there will be another try either on Friday, Sept. 2 at 10:48 a.m. (MT) or Monday, Sept. 5 at 3:12 p.m. (MT).

TELUS Spark announced Friday that its free Aug.29 crack-of-dawn livestream of the Artemis 1 moon rocket launch, which will be shown inside the 360-degree Infinity Dome, sold out within a few hours of being made available to the public.

TELUS Spark said if there are issues with the launch, they will offer tickets first to existing ticket-holders, then post whatever tickets are left over to the public.

The Artemis program aims to land humans on the moon in 2025, including the first woman and first person of colour.

"The historic Artemis 1 mission is the first step in this next era of human exploration – a collaboration between NASA and international and commercial partners to establish a sustainable presence on the moon, from where to prepare for future missions to Mars," said a release issued by TELUS Spark Friday.

Monday's mission will test NASA's most powerful rocket, the Space Launch System, as well as the new Orion spacecraft, which will fly more than 64,000 km beyond the moon before turning around and returning to Earth.

It will capture images of both along the way.

To celebrate the launch, NASA launched a call for moon-inspired content.

"Show everyone all your moon-inspired content with hashtag #NASAMoonSnap, and NASA will show some of them on social media and during the launch broadcast," actor and comedian Jack Black said in a video from NASA. "We're talking moon hats, moon photos, moon latte foam art. If it's got a moon in it, send it in!"

And for those who didn't get tickets to the Infinity Dome livestream, NASA is offering the same free livestream to everyone.

With files from Daniel Otis, CTV News