NASA to roll out world's most powerful rocket for Artemis Moon missions in February

NASA has anunced to roll out its  Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will carry humans to Moon under Artemis missions, in February 2022. rocket is being touted as most powerful one ever built and will make its debut flight under uncrewed Artemis I launch scheduled for first quarter of this year. According to NASA, rocket and craft will be collectively moved to Florida-based Kennedy Center's Launch Pad 39B although exact date of rollout is yet to be decided.

Fitted with two solid rocket boosters and four RS-25 engines, SLS rocket is capable of producing over 8.8 million pounds of thrust to launch each Artemis mission to Moon. John Honeycutt, SLS program manr said in ncy's statement-

Launch System team is t just building one rocket but manufacturing several rockets for exploration missions and future SLS flights beyond initial Artemis launch.

He added that  Artemis I mission is just first in a series of human attempts to reestablish our presence on Moon and said SLS rocket's capabilities might even expand our exploration throughout solar system. It is worth mentioning that engineers are also manufacturing and testing major rocket parts for Artemis missions II, III, IV and V, all of which will be crewed.

SLS chief engineer, John Blevins, said as per NASA, " Launch System is a highly capable launch vehicle purposely designed and rigorously tested to safely transport people, large cargo, and flagship science missions to deep destinations". ncy revealed that engineers are currently developing one of rocket's components called  Exploration Upper St (EUS) will carry as much as 83,000 pounds of cargo to Moon, a capability that is 70% higher than any existing rocket.

More on Mission Artemis I

mission will be an uncrewed one where NASA will launch a manikin, a few lego toys, and even Amazon's voice assistance Alexa to Moon. During this mission, scientists will collect data gared during flight, including launch stress endured by manikin which will n be used to assist astronauts in subsequent Artemis missions. 

Im: Twitter/@NASA