NASA Is Ready To Launch A New Age Of Moon Exploration, Says Artemis

The American space agency is counting down the minutes until the Space Launch System SLS, a massive new Moon Rocket, takes launch. The Artemis project, which intends to return people to the lunar surface after a 50-year absence, will be built on SLS, the most potent spacecraft ever created by National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA.

The 2040s Mars missions will be built on the foundation laid by the moon mission. The launch of the rocket was scheduled for Monday at 08:33 local time (12:33 GMT; 13:33 BST). Its task will be to launch the Orion test capsule far from Earth. In six weeks, this spacecraft will make a large arc-shaped circle around the Moon before returning to Earth and splashing down in the Pacific.

For this test, Orion is unmanned, but beginning in 2024, humans will board the spacecraft for a future series of missions that will only get more difficult. The US space agency has several opportunities to fly SLS-Orion over the course of the upcoming week, but it will want to choose the one that is presented to it first.

At this time of year, the weather in Florida is quite changeable, with regular electrical storms passing over the spaceport. According to NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, "Everything we're doing with this Artemis I flight, we're looking at through the lens of what can we prove out and what can we demonstrate that will buy down risk for the Artemis II crewed mission," 

The US space agency has several opportunities to fly SLS-Orion over the course of the upcoming week, but it will want to choose the one that is presented to it first. At this time of year, the weather in Florida is quite changeable, with regular electrical storms passing over the spaceport.