LOS ANGELES (Audacy) — America's return to the moon is just days away. NASA's new and powerful Space Launch System rocket blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center on August 29. The flight is the maiden voyage of the Artemis mission, which aims to send humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years.
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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said earlier this month that the program is a nod to space history.
"The Saturn V took us to the moon half a century ago," said Nelson. "And now, as we embark on the first Artemis test flight, we recall this agency's storied past."
The launch is a test flight into deep orbit without a crew. If the rocket travels 280,000 miles and returns the Orion spacecraft to Earth safely, a lunar landing with a human team could fly in 2025.
NASA has not yet picked the crew for the six-and-a-half-day trip, but those astronauts would be the first humans to land on the moon in 50 years. The last Apollo mission blasted off in 1972.
"It's a future where NASA will land the first woman and person of color on the moon. And on these increasingly complex missions, astronauts will live and work in deep space," Nelson said.
Friday, NASA announced its plans to land astronauts on the moon's South Pole, where some of the lunar surface has not seen sunlight in billions of years.
The project identified 13 possible locations, all far from where Apollo astronauts like Neil Armstrong landed. Scientists used data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter — a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the moon and mapping its orbit — to choose potential landing sites.
"It's a new part of the moon. It's a place we've never explored," said Sarah Noble from NASA's Planetary Science Division. "It's a long way from the Apollo site."
"It will be unlike any mission that's come before as astronauts venture into dark areas previously unexplored by humans and lay the groundwork for future long-term stays," Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for the Artemis division, explained.
The Artemis 1 mission will last 42 days, and the Orion spacecraft will travel 1.3 million miles before landing off the coast of San Diego. NASA hopes to use what it learns to develop technology for humans to live and work on the moon, with the eventual goal of reaching Mars.
It's a space dream that takes a giant leap with Artemis 1's launch at 8:33 a.m. on August 29th. A second trip to orbit the moon without landing is scheduled for 2024, before the anticipated 2025 moonwalk.
“Buckle up, everyone, we’re going for a ride to the moon,” NASA’s chief exploration scientist Jacob Bleacher said with excitement Friday.
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