NASA is set to launch its giant new Moon rocket – the Space Launch System. The rocket is timed to go up from the Kennedy Space Centre at 08:33 local time (6.03 PM IST) on Monday.

Considered the most powerful vehicle ever developed by NASA, SLS is to be the foundation of its Artemis project, aimed at putting people back on the lunar surface after a 50-year absence. Its job is to propel a test capsule, called Orion, far from Earth. This spacecraft will loop around the Moon on a big arc before returning home within six weeks’ time to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

NASA’s Artemis 1 is the first flight of the Artemis program. Touted as the next generation of lunar exploration, NASA’s Artemis program is a human and robotic Moon exploration program. Named after the twin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology, if the program goes successful, it will re-establish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. With the program, NASA aims to land humans on the Moon by 2024. The space agency will also establish an Artemis Base Camp on the surface and a gateway in lunar orbit for aiding exploration by robots and astronauts.

The main components of the program are the SLS (super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle), Orion spacecraft (partially reusable spacecraft), Lunar Gateway space station (mini-space station in lunar orbit) and the commercial Human Landing Systems, including Starship HLS.
The Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are other space agencies involved in this mission.