Left: A test of an Orion spaceship prototype in 2019. Right: Technicians assemble the Space Launch System rocket in 2021.
NASA/Tony Gray and Kevin O’Connell/Cory Huston/Insider annotations
The SLS rocket and Orion have undergone critical tests to ensure they're ready for flight.
The mission, Artemis 1, is an uncrewed flight test before flying astronauts in future missions.
NASA's first big moon rocket since the Apollo missions roared past the launchpad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, blasting off on its maiden voyage.
The mission, called Artemis I, aims to send an Orion spaceship around the moon and back. It's the first of three flights meant to culminate in landing humans on the surface of the moon for the first time since 1972. Eventually, NASA plans to use the new rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS), to set up a permanent base on the moon.
"This is now the Artemis generation," Bill Nelson, NASA's administrator, said at a press briefing on August 3. "We were in the Apollo generation, but this is a new generation, this is a new type of astronaut. And to all of us that gaze up at the moon, dreaming of the day humankind returns to the lunar surface, folks, we're here. We are going back and that journey, our journey, begins with Artemis I."
NASA's ambitious 21st century lunar campaign requires powerful and advanced space hardware in the SLS mega-rocket, including its boosters and core stage, and the high-tech crew vehicle called Orion. Here's how NASA built these powerful pieces of equipment.
No astronauts have set foot on the moon since the last Apollo mission 50 years ago, in 1972.
Astronaut Eugene Cernan makes a short checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle, during a moonwalk, on December 11, 1972.
NASA/Harrison H. Schmitt
NASA has spent 12 years and $20 billion building a new rocket, SLS, to put boots back on the lunar surface.
NASA's SLS rocket, with the Orion capsule atop, slowly makes its way down the crawlerway at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on March 17, 2022.
NASA/Kim Shiflett
The rocket launched an Orion spaceship toward the moon for the first time on Wednesday. The mission is called Artemis I.
An illustration of the SLS lifting off from the launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
NASA
If the uncrewed Orion capsule makes it around the moon and back without a hitch, the Artemis II mission will carry astronauts on a similar roundabout.
An illustration of the Orion spacecraft circling the moon.
NASA
The Artemis III mission aims to land humans on the moon in 2025.
Left to right: Spacesuit engineer Amy Ross, former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, and spacesuit engineer Kristine Davis present prototypes of Artemis spacesuits at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, on October 15, 2019.
NASA/Joel Kowsky
Eventually, NASA plans to set up a permanent base on the moon, then use it to gather resources for sending astronauts to Mars.
In this illustration, NASA astronauts drill into the ground on Mars.
NASA
But first Artemis I has to prove the spaceship's heat shield will preserve it as it plummets back through Earth's atmosphere, to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
An animation shows the Orion spaceship plowing through the atmosphere as it falls back to Earth.
NASA
To get these powerful, giant pieces of equipment to the launchpad, the space agency needed to build them and test their mettle.
Technicians lower the SLS core stage — the largest part of the rocket — onto the stack in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on June 12, 2021.
NASA/Cory Huston
Development for SLS began in 2011. The design involved a small upper-stage rocket, a massive core stage, and two flight-support boosters attached to the side.
A diagram of the SLS as it boosts the Orion vehicle toward the moon.
NASA/MSFC
The boosters were already built. NASA just took leftover 177-foot mini-rockets from the Space Shuttles and repurposed them to attach to the sides of SLS.
The Discovery space shuttle lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launchpad 39, on November 6, 1990.
NASA
Each booster is made of five segments full of solid fuel.
NASA added its iconic worm logo to the SLS solid rocket boosters for the Artemis I mission.
NASA/Kim Shiflett
NASA calls them 'the largest, most powerful boosters ever built for flight.' In extensive ground testing, they produced about 3.6 million pounds of thrust.
SLS rocket booster fired up in a ground test in March 2015.
Orbital ATK
The first sign of the SLS rocket coming to life, in the final seconds before launch, was the ignition of four RS-25 engines that make up its core stage.
NASA teams lift the SLS rocket's core stage in preparation to stack it at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on June 11, 2021.
NASA/Cory Huston
In March 2021, as part of what's called a 'hot fire' test, those four engines roared to life, producing about 2 million pounds of thrust.
The core stage of the SLS alone measures 212 feet. Essentially, it's two giant connected fuel tanks: one which holds 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen, and a second larger tank, holding 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen.
Artemis I's SLS core stage.
NASA
These tanks, along with the rocket boosters, provide the thrust to push through the thickest parts of the atmosphere.
An SLS engine burns propellant, left, then shuts down, right, during a hot fire test, on January 16, 2021.
NASA TV
Development on the Orion spaceship began 17 years ago, before SLS was even in the picture.
Artemis' astronaut capsule.
NASA
The Orion spacecraft's heat shield is designed to protect the capsule — and the astronauts inside it — from the nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit it will experience when it reenters Earth's atmosphere.
Technicians apply ablative material to the heat shield for the Orion spacecraft, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2020.
NASA/Isaac Watson
At the base is the European Service Module, built by the European Space Agency, which will guide Orion through space and around the moon long after the SLS has been jettisoned post-launch.
Engineers pose with the European Service Module during preparations for shipment to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, on November 6, 2018.
NASA/Rad Sinyak
Above the Service Module is the Crew Module, which has four seats for astronauts.
NASA astronauts step into the Orion crew module hatch during a series of spacesuit check tests conducted on June 13, 2013.
NASA/Bill Stafford
Though no astronauts are aboard Orion on the Artemis I test flight, mannequins to assess radiation, zero gravity indicators, and artifacts are taking a trip around the moon in the capsule.
A Shaun the Sheep doll will be a zero gravity indicator aboard the Artemis I mission's Orion spacecraft.
ESA/Aardman
Engineers have extensively tested Orion's emergency abort system, which is designed to jettison the spaceship away from a failing rocket, saving any astronauts inside.
A fully functional launch abort system with a test version of the Orion crew spacecraft attached soars upward atop a Northrop Grumman booster, on July 2, 2019.
NASA/Tony Gray and Kevin O’Connell
NASA shipped all the parts to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where engineers and technicians slowly stacked the pieces of the rocket in a vertical-assembly building.
The Orion spaceship is lowered on top of SLS in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on October 20, 2021.
NASA/Frank Michaux
Towering at 322 feet, SLS with the Orion spaceship secured up top is taller than the Statue of Liberty, which is 305 feet high.
It was the first time in nearly 50 years that a massive rocket topped with a spacecraft bound for the moon was standing in Kennedy Space Center's vehicle assembly building.
This close-up view shows the SLS rocket for Artemis I inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on September 20, 2021.
NASA/Frank Michaux
The completed stacking of the powerful SLS moon rocket was an important milestone, signaling the final stretch of its development.
The work platforms surrounding the SLS and Orion spacecraft are fully retracted at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on March 16, 2022.
NASA/Glenn Benson
All in all, NASA has spent 17 years and an estimated $50 billion developing the SLS rocket and its Orion spaceship, according to The Planetary Society.
The SLS rocket atop a mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B after being rolled out to the launch pad, on August 17, 2022.
NASA/Joel Kowsky
NASA then practiced a launch, stopping just before the rocket would lift off, in a test called a wet dress rehearsal.
A mobile launcher delivers SLS to Launch Pad 39B for a wet dress rehearsal at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on March 18, 2022.
NASA/Kim Shiflett
Finally, on August 16, the 23-story rocket was hoisted atop a crawler and pulled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building.
