NASA's massive unmanned SLS moon rocket prepares for test flight

The massive Space Launch System (SLS) moon rocket of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) started an hours-long crawl to the launch pad on August 16 night before its test flight towards the end of this month. Carrying an unmanned Orion capsule, the 98-metre-tall rocket is preparing for its maiden test flight this month on 29 August. The Orion capsule will orbit around the moon for 42 days, and then return to Earth for an ocean splashdown.

It's going to be an important and long-awaited demonstration mission for NASA's Artemis programme. This programme intends to land the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon. After that, NASA will use the findings of the lunar exploration to take the next giant leap of sending the first astronaut to Mars.

The Artemis mission is divided into three stages— Artemis 1, Artemis 2, and Artemis 3. The unmanned test flight is a part of Artemis 1. Artemis 2 will be the first manned flight test of SLS and Orion spacecraft around the Moon. The planning is in progress for Artemis 3. It will be a regular cadence of missions with crew on and around the Moon.

The Artemis 2 mission is set to take place in 2024. And the Artemis 3 mission is planned for the year 2025. The plan includes setting up a base camp on the Moon’s surface. This will allow the robots and astronauts to explore and conduct more science experiments than ever before.

A major motive of the test flight of Artemis 1 is to see if the capsule’s heatshield can survive the heat while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. If the technical issue or weather prevents the rocket from launching on 29 August, then another attempt will be made on 2 September. If the rocket fails to get off from Earth even on this day, then a further attempt will be made on 5 September.

While NASA is developing SLS, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is developing an even larger rocket named Starship. Starship will be playing a significant role in the future missions of Artemis. It will link up with Orion to help astronauts get down to the Moon’s surface and unlike SLS, it is designed to be totally reusable.

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