After 50 years, NASA wants to send humans to the moon again through its Artemis 1 mission. They plan to launch their lunar mission in late August or early September.
August 29 marks the launch of NASA’s moon rocket. Still watching both September 2nd and September 5th, just in case. It’s about 50 years after the famous Apollo 1 mission that allowed astronaut Neil Armstrong to become the first man to walk on the moon. Since then, NASA has been planning to land more people on the moon, and this time, the first women and people of color will be part of their new quest through the Artemis 1 mission. The astronauts have already been identified, with 9 men and 9 women.
Speaking of Artemis 1, it is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Artemis 1 will be the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and ground systems at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Here’s what Mike Sarafin, the Artemis I mission manager at NASA headquarters in Washington, said about this mission: “This is a mission that will really do what hasn’t been done and learn what is unknown.” He further added, “This will blaze a trail that humans will follow on the next Orion flight, pushing the edges of the envelope to prepare for this mission.”
Regarding the launch of NASA’s Mega Moon rocket, NASA officials said SLS accomplished about 90 percent of its pre-launch goals, with only a few kinks to iron out. One problem encountered was with faulty gaskets that allowed hydrogen to leak, but this was corrected.
At 322 feet (98 meters) tall when covered with the Orion crew capsule, the SLS is taller than the Statue of Liberty and weighs a whopping 5.75 million pounds (2.6 million kilograms), according to NASA. Although the SLS is slightly shorter than NASA’s Saturn V rocket used during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, it is significantly more robust, capable of delivering about 8.8 million pounds (4 million kg) of thrust, or 15 percent more than the Saturn V’s 7.5 million pounds (3.4 million kg), NASA said.
Add Comment