Thread by @newscientist

It’s finally time. After more than a decade of development, years of delays and billions of dollars of budget overruns, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is ready to launch!

newscientist.com/article/233497…

“We are go for launch, which is absolutely outstanding,” said @NASA’s Robert Cabana (@Astro_CabanaBob) at a press conference after the rocket passed a flight readiness review on Monday

NASA’s SLS is the most powerful rocket ever built, producing more thrust than even the Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo astronauts to the moon
newscientist.com/article/209594…

If all goes well, the huge rocket will take off on its maiden voyage, the Artemis I mission, on 29 August – the first major test of @NASA’s plan to return people to the surface of the moon in 2025

#SLS will carry the #Orion capsule to an altitude of just under 4000 kilometres before the two craft separate and the rocket falls towards Earth

Orion will continue onwards to the moon, where it will spend six days in orbit before coming back

newscientist.com/article/mg2242…

One of the main goals of this flight is testing #Orion’s heat shield, which will have to endure temperatures of almost 2800°C as it enters Earth’s atmosphere at upwards of 40,000 kilometres per hour

While Orion won’t have any crew aboard this time – the craft’s first crewed flight is planned for 2024 – it will carry mannequins equipped with sensors to make sure the journey would be safe for astronauts
newscientist.com/article/231826…

“This day has been a long time coming,” said @Astro_CabanaBobat a press conference

Read more about the upcoming launch of @NASA’s SLS: newscientist.com/article/233497…