NASA managers say they have completed testing of the Space Launch System 🚀after a recent countdown rehearsal and are ready to move into preparations for a launch as soon as late August.
NASA plans to roll the mobile launch platform carrying SLS back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) early July 1, weather permitting. Once back in the VAB, crews will spend several weeks preparing the vehicle to return to the pad for the Artemis 1 launch.
That launch, known as Artemis I, would send the Orion capsule, without any astronauts on board, in orbit around the moon. Then.. It would be followed by Artemis II, perhaps in 2024, in which four astronauts would fly in Orion around the moon but not land. The first landing could come on 2025, but that date depends on the success of the prior missions and availability of the vehicles....