Fifty years after the last Apollo mission, the Artemis mission will launch with the explosion of the unmanned Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at 8:33 A.M. (12:33 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday. Tens of thousands of people, including US Vice President Kamala Harris, are expected to attend the launch, with hotels around Cape Canaveral booked for the event. “This mission goes with many hopes and dreams of many people. And now we are the Artemis generation,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Saturday. The goal of the six-week test flight, called Artemis 1, is to test the SLS and the Orion crew capsule that sits atop the rocket. The capsule will orbit the moon to see if the craft is safe for humans in the near future. Instead of the astronauts, three test dummies are strapped into the capsule to measure vibration, acceleration and radiation, one of the biggest dangers to humans in deep space. The capsule alone has more than 1,000 sensors. The 98-meter (322 ft) tall SLS-Orion complex is the centerpiece of the US space agency’s successor to the Apollo moon program of the 1960s and 1970s. Dubbed the world’s most powerful, complex rocket, the SLS represents the largest new vertical launch system built by NASA since the Saturn V flew for Apollo. The next mission, Artemis 2, will bring astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing on its surface. If the first two Artemis missions are successful, NASA aims to land astronauts back on the Moon, including the first woman to set foot on the lunar surface, as early as 2025, although many experts believe that timeframe is likely to slip by some years . The last humans to walk on the moon were the two-man Apollo 17 landing team in 1972, following in the footsteps of 10 other astronauts during five previous missions beginning with Apollo 11 in 1969. The Artemis program seeks to eventually establish a long-term lunar base as a stepping stone for even more ambitious astronaut trips to Mars, a goal that NASA officials have said will likely take at least until the late 2030s to achieve. Jack Burns, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the Artemis missions will use new technology not available during the Apollo mission. “Going in front of the moon is the right way to describe it, because it’s not your grandfather’s Apollo program,” he told Al Jazeera. “These are all new technology, new incentives, new opportunities. Bringing all this technology to the moon will be exciting.” NASA said there is an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather conditions for a timely liftoff at the start of a two-hour launch window. “Everything so far looks good from a vehicle perspective,” said Jeff Spaulding, NASA’s senior test manager. “We are excited, the vehicle is ready, it looks great.” Although lightning rods at the launch site were knocked out during a storm on Saturday, Spaulding said he “hasn’t seen anything in the ground system that causes us concern.” NASA said there was no damage to the spacecraft or launch facilities. If the countdown clock stops for any reason, NASA has set September 2 and September 5 as possible backup launch dates. Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo said the excitement from the spectators at Cape Canaveral was palpable. “Years overdue and billions over budget, the moment is almost here for the launch of Artemis I, with more than 100,000 people expected to attend, all crossing their fingers for a successful liftoff,” he said.
