
The US space agency has begun the countdown to the liftoff of its giant new moon rocket, the Space Launch System. The SLS is the most powerful vehicle ever developed by NASA and is expected to be the cornerstone of its Artemis project, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface after a 50-year absence.
The rocket is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center at 8:33 a.m. today. Its task will be to push a test capsule, called Orion, away from Earth.
This spacecraft will circle the Moon in a large arc before returning home in a 'splash' in the Pacific Ocean after six weeks. Orion is not crewed for this demonstration, but assuming all the hardware works properly, astronauts will climb aboard for a future series of increasingly complex missions, starting in 2024.
"Everything we're doing with this Artemis I flight, we're looking through the lens of what we can prove and what we can demonstrate that will reduce the risk to the Artemis II crew mission," NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik explained.
The innovation for this year will be the participation of Italy in this release.