NASA’s Orion Unmanned Spacecraft is Ready To Journey to the Moon as the First Return in Decades

NASA’s Orion Unmanned Spacecraft is Ready for it’s Journey to the Moon as the First Return in Decades

(Photo : Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Space agency, NASA's Orion spacecraft, will be ready by 2022 to go to the moon. The first uncrewed mission to the earth's moon in preparation for the actual manned visit since the final Apollo flights.

Planners say the spaceship will be flying in the moon's orbit before the actual landing on the surface. It will be the jump-off point for the Mars mission to follow years later, establishing a permanent moon base and other activities related to space utilization.

NASA's first steps to re-visit the moon with the Orion spacecraft

The cost of the ship is $12.2 billion, as the lunar spacecraft Orion can be linked to a booster rocket, and start it on the way to the moon in 2021 or 2022, reported the Daily Mail.

Programming for the lunar mission will include reconnoitering orbits as preparation for the final steps to send humans anytime later in the decade.

Sources say the vehicle was moved to Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Monday and mounted on the Space Launch System (SLS), the biggest rocket.

If plans pan out correctly, the goals of the Artemis program will be on track for the start of colonizing the moon by 2028, with the Orion spacecraft as a component of the initial uncrewed mission.

The Artemis program will travel unmanned to the moon

Artemis-1 is the first vehicle to travel farthest into space, and an important function would be a trail of the SLS and the Orion module that houses the astronaut. Findings of this stage will determine if the Artemis-2 will go for an orbit around the moon by 2023, with no crew on board, citing the BBC.

It is understood that getting to the moon or Mars has difficulties to overcome. Doing the planning for all aspects is crucial to avoid mishaps and successfully conquer space.

The ship meant for Artemis-1 was moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) before storing it in another building at the Cape Canaveral site.

Universe Today noted that a system called the launch abort system would be used in an emergency separation. It will eject the manned craft from the rocket in an emergency.

The SLS rocket is about 322-feet high, and the Orion will be connected to it. Three Artemis crafts will be built for the astronauts to access the moon since the last Apollo 17 was in 1972.

It will be the first mission with a woman on board to land on the lunar landscape, and this program will have the first person of color to travel in space and to the moon.

Last August, the space agency reported setbacks and budget problems but will push for the 2024 date of the moon landing.

This historic mission will have four astronauts on the ship, and two will land the SpaceX Human Landing System (HLS) on the lunar landscape. The landing will be in the south polar region and a stay of 6.5 days, with a scheduled four moonwalks.

The Human Landing System is the design of Elon Musk's Starship, which is under trial in South Texas. He beat the Blue Origin of Jeff Bezos, who is protesting the decision. The Orion spacecraft is just an unmanned mission until the big one, which will be a landmark for humanity.