NASA’s new moon rocket arrives at launch pad ahead of debut flight.

• NASA’s giant new SLS rocket arrived at its launchpad in Cape Canaveral ahead of a planned flight to the Moon in less than two weeks.
• It will be the maiden voyage of the Artemis program — America’s quest to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
• Artemis 1is aiming to send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon using a combination of the never-flown Space Launch System rocket, along with the once-flown Orion spacecraft.
• It will propel the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the Moon, and the spacecraft will remain in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.
• Starting in 2024, astronauts will travel aboard Orion for the same trip, and the following year, at the earliest, Americans will once again set foot on the Moon.
• The SLS rocket, in development for more than a decade, is 98 meters (322 feet) tall.
• The Orion capsule will fly to the Moon and 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) beyond it — further than any previous crewed spacecraft.
• On the way back through Earth’s atmosphere, traveling at 40,000 km per hour (25,000 mph), Orion’s thermal shield will have to withstand a temperature that is half that of the surface of the sun.
• Liftoff for the Artemis 1 mission is scheduled for August 29 at 8:33 am (1233 GMT). If it has to be postponed due to bad weather, the backup dates are September 2 and 5.
• After the 42-day trip, the capsule is supposed to splash down in the Pacific and be picked up by a US Navy vessel.
• In 2024, an Artemis 2 mission is scheduled to take astronauts up to orbit the Moon but without landing on it and Artemis 3, a mission scheduled for 2025 at the earliest.
• The last time people walked on the Moon was with the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
• While the Apollo program featured only white male astronauts, NASA says the Artemis missions will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

About

• NASA’s Artemis mission is touted as the next generation of lunar exploration, and is named after thetwin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology.
• Artemis is also the goddess of the moon.
• It is the first in a series of increasingly complex missionsthat will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.
• Space Launch System (SLS) rocket:It is the most powerful rocket in the world — and travels 2,80,000 miles from the earth for over four to six weeks during the course of the mission.