NASA’s new giant SLS rocket arrived on Wednesday morning at the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida ahead of its scheduled launch to the moon in 12 days, AFP and BBC reported, as quoted by Agerpres.

The mission will be the first flight of America’s major lunar return program, known as Artemis. Artemis 1 is an unmanned mission to test the rocket and its attached capsule so that manned flights to the Moon can be carried out safely starting in 2024.

The rocket called SLS (acronym for Space Launch System) has been under development for more than ten years and will become the most powerful in the world after launch. Its height is 98 meters. It was installed at the legendary launch pad 39B after a 10-hour transport at night from the assembly shop.

“New to all of us who gaze at the moon, dream of the day when humanity returns to the surface of the moon, friends, it will happen, we will return,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a news conference earlier this month.

When NASA wants to launch the SLS rocket to the moon

The Orion capsule will be sent to the moon and even 40,000 miles beyond, venturing further than any other manned spacecraft to date.

When re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, the heat shield will have to withstand a speed of almost 40,000 kilometers per hour and a temperature that is twice as low as the surface of the Sun.

The release is scheduled for August 29 at 08:33 local time. If the weather conditions are not favorable, the other launch windows will be September 2nd or September 5th.

The mission will last 42 days before returning to the Pacific Ocean, where the ship will be found by a US Navy ship.

In 2024, the Artemis 2 mission will deliver two astronauts into orbit around the Moon without landing. The task of landing on the moon is reserved for the crew of Artemis 3, the mission is planned no earlier than 2025.

The last time a human crew landed on the moon was during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.