30 Apollo 11th lunar landing anniversary (9 of 20): Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, Apollo 11 ExtraVehicles are photographs of walking near the lunar module during extracurricular activity. (Photo by NASA / Getty Images)
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Updated 3:34 PM PT – Sunday, November 29, 2020
NASA is starting to prepare a launch system for the ‘Artemis’ moon mission next year.
On Tuesday, NASA announced the start of assembly for the rocket, which will be used to carry the first woman to the moon. The launch is scheduled for 2021.
The first booster engine was completed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for the Artemis program’s unmanned maiden voyage.
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The trip will serve as a test for technology other than the man-made ‘Artemis’ rocket.
“So the Artemis program is our lunar research program,” said astronaut Serena ñó n-Chancellor. “We will reach the moon’s south pole by 2024, landing the first woman and the next man.”
It is the first of 10 test run engines to be assembled as part of a new space launch system that NASA hopes could be used for future travel to Mars and other deep space missions.
In 2021, officials expect to build an unmanned test flight around the moon before the second mission in 2023. All this is in preparation for the final mission, ‘Artemis Three’, which will land the moon in 2024.
Since 1969, the USA has made only six crew trips to the moon. The last time was in 1972.
In 2019, NASA Administrator Jim Brydenstein said the agency would use the next trip to compare their ability to travel steadily and stay on the moon.
“We will take the lead, and we will take an alliance of nations, to go to the moon, to live at this time,” Brydenstein said. “It’s a significant difference between what we’re doing today and what we did in 1969 and 1972.”
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