CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (WHTM) -- NASA is about to take a big step towards going back to the Moon.
On March 17th, the Artemis I mission is scheduled to start its trip to lunar orbit. It's a short hop- the Space Launch System, NASA's new Moon rocket, will leave the Vehicle Assembly Building, where NASA once "stacked" Saturn V rockets and Space Shuttles. It will then slowly (as in about 12 hours) be moved four miles to the historic Pad 39B, where the Saturns and Shuttles were launched. Atop the SLS, an Orion spacecraft, capable of carrying six astronauts.
But the Artemis I mission will be uncrewed, a test flight lasting about three weeks. The Orion will travel farther from Earth than any spacecraft designed for humans to date, over 280,000 miles. According to NASA "Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before" before parachuting into the Pacific Ocean.
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The exact launch date has not been determined. First, the system must go through what's called a wet dress rehearsal, where the SLS and Orion get put through many of the procedures leading up to (but not including) launch.
If the wet dress rehearsal goes well, the actual launch could take place this May.
If the Artemis I mission is a success, it will be time to send up some people. The space agency looks for Artemis 2 to send astronauts to orbit the moon in 2024, and actually land astronauts on the Moon with the Artemis 3 mission. That would take place in 2025 at the earliest, but at this point, it looks more likely it will take place in 2026.
To see a timelapse of the vehicle assembly, click here.
To see a NASA video about the Artemis 1 mission, click here.
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