Four years late and a decade in the making, Nasa’s ‘mega moon’ rocket ready for test flight

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The Apollo program took 11 missions to get to the Moon, but with so much experience to call upon, Artemis will attempt it in just three.

The first stage, Artemis 1, is scheduled to launch in April or May, and will be an unmanned test run. However, it will have three “astronauts” on board, in the form of mannequins which will collect radiation data.

The second stage, Artemis 2, is due for launch in 2024 and will see astronauts return to the Moon’s orbit, similar to Apollo 8.

The full touchdown, Artemis 3, will happen in 2025, with astronauts either traveling straight from the spacecraft to the Moon’s surface, or by docking at the Lunar Gateway space station and descending from there.

Although slightly smaller than the 363ft Saturn V rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), a super heavy-lift launch vehicle used to send the Orion spacecraft and astronauts to the moon, has 15 per cent more thrust and will be the world’s most powerful rocket when it launches.

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