Fifty-three years after humans first walked on the moon, NASA is starting its ambitious Artemis program to return us there.
The first and second flights of the SLS rocket will take place on Monday morning. The launch pad has been a long journey.
Congress directed NASA to develop a rocket as a follow-on to the space shuttle. The two solid boosters that flank the central liquid hydrogen tank are similar to the ones used in the shuttle. NASA, Congress and the defense contractors they hired continued to develop SLS despite the emergence of private launch companies.
Cost overruns and technical delays have plagued the project. SLS has cost more than $20 billion, and because no part of the rocket is re-entries, the costs are not over.
The beginning of what could be the most extensive, expansive era of human space exploration has been marked by Monday's launch. Humans could explore parts of the moon that have never been explored before. We could be entering a time when the moon is not just a beautiful, glowing orb in the sky, but a robust research station like Antartica or a way station to other parts of the solar system.
The main goal of the mission is to test the heat shield and communications systems before the capsule carries humans. NASA put a mannequin inside of the capsule to see how humans would fare. NASA said that the mannequin will be equipped with sensors to measure radiation as well as "vibrations and accelerations" that humans will experience
Less than a minute after take-off, the spaceship will reach its initial altitude. The capsule will separate from the core stage around two hours after launch, and the solid rocket boosters will splash down in the ocean. During its four to six week mission, it will travel 280,000 miles from Earth and make a few close flybys of the moon. NASA says it is the farthest a human-rated spaceship has traveled. Each of the 10 CubeSats will have a specific scientific and technical objective.
The image was created by NASA.
The launch window is open for two hours. The first chance to send a rocket and capsule to space is this one. If NASA doesn't launch the rocket within two hours on Monday, it will have another chance on September 2 and September 5. If a launch doesn't happen on any of the three days, the rocket will have to be rolled back to VAB and critical tests will need to be done.
There would be another launch window from October 17 to October 31.
NASA wants to launch Artemis II in 24 years. The mission would be assigned a crew. A woman and a person of color will walk on the moon in the middle of the decade. In April of last year, the company won a $2.9 billion contract to ferry astronauts to the surface of the moon.
The launch will be streamed on NASA's website. The video will begin at 6:30 AM.
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