NASA just announced an ambitious date to launch its megarocket to the moon

NASA wants to get to the moon in a hurry.

The associate administrator for exploration systems development, Jim Free, said in a conference call on July 20 that NASA was ready to announce some launch dates for the Artemis 1 mission.

This mission has been in the works for a long time. In many ways, Artemis 1 marks the beginning of a new era for NASA: the first mission for its new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket series, and one that will send a crewless Orion spaceship around the moon as a critical test for an upcoming actual-human-carrying lunar Human feet on the moon is something our species hasn't accomplished in over 40 years. Around four years from now, it will happen again.

If everything goes according to plan, NASA will be able to launch Artemis 1 at 8:33 AM on August 29th. The spaceship will return to the moon and splash down in the ocean on October 10. The splashdowns can be expected on October 11 or October 17.

The second splashdown date makes for a shorter mission by about three days, but remember that when traveling through space, everything is always moving.