By: Derick Zhang
At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA is testing another rocket and this one is going to the moon, literally. The Rocket is called the “SLS moon rocket” more commonly known as the Artemis I, is set to set off to the moon anywhere from late August to early September. The name of the rocket is ironic because Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt and in some myths the one who rides the moon across the night sky. Apollo is Artemis’s twin brother and guardian of the sun. As most of us know the Apollo 11 made the first flight to the moon where Neil Armstrong landed the first foot ever on the moon and NASA intends to make the Artemis projects as iconic as the Apollo missions had.
Even though NASA is almost done with another masterpiece of engineering, the rocket still needs a million things to go right before it can take off. During a test there was a hydrogen leak, this made the entire test go wrong because the rocket’s thrust is made of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Even though the test wasn’t as successful as it could get, NASA was still happy with the results. They have enough data to proceed with the first-ever launch attempt SLS rocket that NASA plans to use to return astronauts from the moon. As soon as they finish replacing hardware associated with the leak, they can give a date of when the launch is going to happen.
This is only the beginning, maybe in 2024 astronauts will use the rocket to take the Orion capsule around the moon and the first landing could happen in 2025. Even though there is something needed to be fixed, NASA is still taking the chance, and this may just be a waste of billions of dollars. Will Apollo watch his twin sister gain glory or burn into flames? It’s another historic moment to wait for as it was on July 20th, 1969.