🌅 Artemis II Reaches the Launchpad

SOURCE

NASA

WHAT TO KNOW

• NASA’s massive crawler-transporter delivered the Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft to its launchpad this past weekend, moving at a top speed of just 0.82 miles per hour during the 4-mile, 12-hour trip from the building where the 322-foot-tall rocket was assembled. Engineers are preparing the rocket for a wet dress rehearsal sometime next month, including fueling the rocket and performing all of the tasks that will precede the launch of Artemis II, the first crewed test flight under the Artemis program, currently scheduled for no later than April.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The SLS rocket will take the four-person Artemis II crew to space before separating from the Orion spacecraft as it embarks on a 10-day trip around the Moon and back to Earth. The mission will set a number of human spaceflight records, including taking the crew farther away from Earth than any other humans in history, traveling more than 4,000 miles beyond the far side of the Moon. The crew—which includes the first woman and non-American astronauts to fly to the vicinity of the Moon—will also set a human spaceflight speed record during reentry aboard Orion, exceeding 25,000 miles per hour as the spacecraft tears through the atmosphere.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The main goal of Artemis II is to test life-support systems and emergency procedures, which requires humans to be on board. The mission sets up the landmark Artemis III mission, which will bring astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in more than five decades. Artemis III is currently scheduled for no later than 2028, though experts doubt the lander needed to take the astronauts to the surface—still under development at SpaceX—will be ready in time.