NASA: SLS Rocket Ready For Historic Astronaut Mission to the Moon Next Year
Credit: NASA
On October 20, Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy announced that the SLS rocket for the Artemis 2 mission was fully assembled and ready to deliver astronauts to the Moon. “We’re one step closer to completing the mission!” he wrote on the X network.
The final stage of the Space Launch System rocket’s assembly was its installation on top of the Orion spacecraft. This occurred several days earlier.
The Artemis 2 mission will carry a four-person crew aboard the Orion spacecraft. The 10-day mission includes a lunar flyby and return to Earth without landing on the moon’s surface.
The Artemis 2 crew was announced back in April 2023, when the mission was scheduled to launch in November 2024. NASA astronaut Reed Wiseman became Artemis 2 commander. The crew also included NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The spacecraft will fly by the Moon at a great distance and will not enter orbit around the moon. This will be a test of the life support systems in a real flight. The Artemis 3 crew will set foot on the lunar surface—but that will be another story.
