The uncrewed test flight, Artemis I, will have three mannequins.
Ahead of its launch on Aug. 29, NASA’s gigantic Space Launch System rocket with the Orion spacecraft, for the Artemis I mission, arrived at the launch pad on Wednesday.
After a nearly 10-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building, the megarocket arrived at the Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early morning of Aug. 17.
“In the coming days, engineers and technicians will configure systems at the pad for launch, which is currently targeted for no earlier than Aug. 29 at 8:33 a.m. (two hour launch window),” NASA said in a blog.
“Teams have worked to refine operations and procedures and have incorporated lessons learned from the wet dress rehearsal test campaign and have updated the launch timeline accordingly,” it added.
Last month, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that its uncrewed test flight, Artemis 1, which will have three mannequins, will likely get off the ground on Aug. 29. The decision came after final wet dress rehearsals, or ground checks, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that took place in June.
The U.S. Space agency further noted that if bad weather or a minor technical issue triggers a delay of Artemis I mission, then Sept. 2 and Sept. 5 can be seen as other probable dates for the launch.
With the month-long Artemis-1 mission, the U.S. seeks to return humans to the Moon, which they last explored in 1972. Further, the world’s largest economy wants to build a sustained human presence on the Earth’s only natural satellite, and use the lessons gained from the mission to eventually plan a trip to Mars.
