NASA reveals first photos of Artemis rockets that will take astronauts to the Moon

The POT released the first photographs of the rockets that will take its astronauts to the Moon, as part of missions Artemis.

The 212 foot tall vehicles still under construction New Orleanscarried out by the scientists of the American space agency, together with the company Boeing. The engines that will propel the rocket are in charge of Aerojet Rocketdyne, while the thrusters are manufactured by Northrop Grumman.

However, the central stage of Artemis II is already in final assembly at the facilities of the Boeing contractors and United Launch Alliance (ULA) in Florida. The booster motor segments are finished and awaiting shipment.

Once this section is joined with the other four items, crews will unpack and install each of the four RS-25 engines and prepare it for delivery to the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be released.

Likewise, the US space agency reported that the rockets of the Space Launch System (SLS) from NASA for Artemis III and IV that are already in various phases of production, assembly and testing.

The SLS, with its two boosters and four RS-25 engines, managed to produce more than 8.8 million pounds Thrust at takeoff to send the spaceship NASA Orions beyond the Moon and back, as part of the Artemis I Mission last year.

As on that occasion, these systems will power the Artemis II and III missions to the Moon, using an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS). When the fourth mission is reached, this technology will evolve into a more powerful configuration called Block 1B, to send crew and large cargo to the Moon.

On November 16 of last year, NASA launched the next-generation Orion rocket as part of the Artemis I mission, on an uncrewed journey around the natural satellite of the Land. The capsule returned at the beginning of December after successfully completing its mission.

landed on the Pacific Ocean after completing a 25-day mission and spending a few 127 kilometers above the moon on a lunar flyby. This came about two weeks after reaching its furthest point in space, almost 434 thousand 500 kilometers from Earth.

With this launch, the successor program of Apollo, the Artemis, whose goal is to return astronauts to the lunar surface within this decade and establish a sustainable base there as a support for future human exploration of Mars.

The second flight of the mission, now fully crewed, will fly on a different trajectory and test Orion’s critical systems with humans on board. The SLS rocket will evolve to be able to send at least 45 metric tons.

While this is happening, however, data from the first flight is helping engineers analyze rocket systems to safely fly the crew on future lunar missions.

It is estimated that a manned flight around the moon and back could arrive as soon as in 2024, followed within a few more years by the program’s first lunar landing of astronauts, one of them a woman, with Artemis III.