Photo: ESA
Believe it or not, by the end of this year, humanity will have commenced its return to the Moon. The Artemis 1 mission is scheduled for launch this year, a dry run meant to validate the systems that will eventually take people up there by the middle of the decade.
Tasked with launching the mission is the most powerful rocket ever built, the Space Launch System. On top of it will sit a fancy new spacecraft called Orion, one that, as soon as it’s freed from Earth’s gravity by the rocket, will separate and head on to the Moon.
There is not that much time left until Artemis 1 takes off, and that means the NASA facilities where the combo is put together are buzzing with activity. At the end of April, the core stage of the SLS arrived at the Kennedy Space Center and entered the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for, well, assembly.
It is there where NASA’s European counterpart, ESA, captured the image you see as the main photo of this story. ESA provides the Orion spacecraft with the engine, hence it is cleared to be there.
What we’re seeing are the twin solid-fuel rocket boosters already stacked on the mobile launcher. A large gap separates them, and that is the place where the core stage will be fitted.
After the boosters and core stage come together, NASA will place the Orion spacecraft on top of the whole thing, which should provide some 9.5 million pounds of thrust at take-off.
Speaking of Orion, it too is almost ready to go. Now at the Multi Payload Processing Facility, it was fueled on April 1, and it is now undergoing high-pressure helium servicing. Up next is the launch processing, and all should be ready for action sometime in November this year.
There is not that much time left until Artemis 1 takes off, and that means the NASA facilities where the combo is put together are buzzing with activity. At the end of April, the core stage of the SLS arrived at the Kennedy Space Center and entered the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for, well, assembly.
It is there where NASA’s European counterpart, ESA, captured the image you see as the main photo of this story. ESA provides the Orion spacecraft with the engine, hence it is cleared to be there.
What we’re seeing are the twin solid-fuel rocket boosters already stacked on the mobile launcher. A large gap separates them, and that is the place where the core stage will be fitted.
After the boosters and core stage come together, NASA will place the Orion spacecraft on top of the whole thing, which should provide some 9.5 million pounds of thrust at take-off.
Speaking of Orion, it too is almost ready to go. Now at the Multi Payload Processing Facility, it was fueled on April 1, and it is now undergoing high-pressure helium servicing. Up next is the launch processing, and all should be ready for action sometime in November this year.
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