NASA has announced that its uncrewed test flight, Artemis 1, which will have three mannequins, will likely get off the ground on Aug. 29.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, earlier this week announced that it hopes to launch its over a month-long lunar test flight in late August.
In a media teleconference on Wednesday, the space research organization announced that its uncrewed test flight, Artemis 1, which will have three mannequins, will likely get off the ground on Aug. 29. NASA is also looking at Sept. 2 and Sept. 5 as other probable dates for the launch of the world’s most powerful rocket and test of Space Launch System (or SLS), and Orion spacecraft.
The decision follows final wet dress rehearsals, or ground checks, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that took place in June. Yet the organization’s commitment to final dates will depend on the preparations and Florida weather and will be done a week before the launch.
With the four-to-six weeks 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.
It is interesting to note that NASA’s new lunar mission is named Artemis which in Greek mythology is a twin sister of Apollo. Apollo 11 was the first U.S. spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon and the announcement of the Artemis 1 programme comes on the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
