![]() Since then, the White House has directed NASA to accelerate the return of U.S. Once in lunar orbit, crew members will dock with a lunar lander and attempt a landing near the moon’s south pole.īut the development of the Space Launch System, which kicked off in 2011, has faced ballooning costs, delays and a change in strategy ordered after the Trump administration took office in 2017. The Orion spaceship will orbit the moon to demonstrate the capsule’s capabilities and performance before NASA commits to flying astronauts around the moon on the second SLS/Orion flight in late 2022 or early 2023.Īccording to NASA’s current plans, the Artemis 3 mission - scheduled as soon as 2024 - will send astronauts back to the moon on the third SLS/Orion flight. The most powerful launch vehicle since the Apollo-era Saturn 5 moon rocket, the Space Launch System will carry an unpiloted Orion crew capsule into space. ![]() After a thorough review, NASA says the first SLS launch - named Artemis 1 - is now planned in November of next year. The last official schedule from NASA had the first SLS test launch in March 2021, but managers have said for months that schedule was no longer achievable. With the Space Launch System’s inaugural test flight now officially delayed to November 2021, NASA says work halted by the coronavirus pandemic will resume within weeks to prepare for the first test-firing of the SLS core stage at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. ![]() A crane hoisted the Space Launch System core stage into the B-2 test stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in January. ![]()
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