More than 50 years after the last Apollo space mission, NASA's Artemis programme intends to land astronauts on the Moon in the mid-2020s.To pave the way, NASA plans to launch Artemis I to an orbit 40,000 miles beyond the Moon. The subsequent Artemis Ⅱ will send astronauts in orbit around the Moon before Artemis Ⅲ lands on the Moon's south pole, currently planned for 2025 or 2026.NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) will make all this possible. Known colloquially as the 'mega-rocket' or 'moon rocket', the enormous 322ft SLS stands taller than the Statue of Liberty.Capable of carrying more payload to deep space than any earlier rocket, the SLS is designed to evolve into increasingly powerful configurations in the future, enabling ambitious future spacefaring including crewed and robotic scientific missions to Mars.
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