NASA’s Artemis mission will hit major landmark in hours as it reaches the Moon

If all goes well, it will return humans to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century by 2025. The $93billion (£78billion) mission sent the 322-feet-tall Space Launch System (SLS) rocket blasting into space in the early hours of Wednesday morning in what NASA chiefs called a “tremendous turn of history.”

NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson, told Newsweek earlier this year: “We’re going back to the moon after 50 years, to stay, to learn, to work, to create, to develop new technologies and new systems and new spacecraft in order to go to Mars … This is a tremendous turn of history.”

According to NASA, Artemis I is the “first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration, and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond.

“During this flight, the spacecraft will launch on the most powerful rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans have ever flown. It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of miles beyond the Moon. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and hotter than ever before.”

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Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1699332/nasa-artemis-moon-orion-capsule-space-news