The American space agency has confirmed it is ready to launch its giant new Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), next Monday. Nasa officials conducted a flight-readiness review on Monday and concluded there were no substantive technical issues preventing the launch.
The SLS will carry the Orion capsule on an uncrewed test flight around the Moon, marking the first full end-to-end examination of the Artemis exploration hardware. The launch window opens at 08:33 local time (12:33 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Jim Free, Nasa's associate administrator for exploration systems development, said: 'We actually had no actions coming out of the review and we had no dissenting opinions.' The mission is expected to last 42 days, with Orion splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California, on 10 October.
Nasa sees the Artemis programme as a stepping stone to sending astronauts to Mars in the 2030s or soon after. The first crewed mission, Artemis II, is targeted for 2024, while the first lunar landing since 1972, Artemis III, is planned for no earlier than late 2025. Nasa has identified 13 candidate landing sites near the lunar South Pole, where water-ices may be present.
