NASA has announced that its Artemis 1 moon rocket is good to go for a launch on Monday, Aug. 29, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Cheddar News goes into the planned launch of the giant rocket — the Space Launch System (SLS) — and its payload, the Orion spacecraft, which will continue on for a rendezvous with the moon.

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Today Explained: Artemis 1 Is a 'Go' for Launch

well it's time for today explain what we break down some of the biggest stories in the news, how we got here and where we go next. Nasa's Artemis one mission ready to go to the moon. The space agency announcing the first flight of its historic program aiming to return astronauts to the lunar surface. Is a go for launch liftoff scheduled for next monday, august 29th at the Kennedy space center in florida. Artemis one will launch a 322 ft mega rocket and its orient capsule to the circle to circle the moon and then return to Earth. It's gonna take about a week to reach lunar orbit, Stay there for a little more than a month and then return to the Earth in october. That is if everything goes as planned. Nasa says the mission, although on crude is still incredibly risky and will push the vehicle to its limits. Take a listen, we are stressing Orion beyond it what it was actually designed for in preparation for sending it to the moon with a crew and we want to make sure that it works absolutely perfectly when we do that and that we understand all the risks. We're gonna learn a lot from this test flight. The mission kicking off NASA's highly anticipated Artemis program which hopes to return humans to the moon and land the first woman and first person of colour on the lunar surface by 2025. It also aims to pave the way for the human exploration of MARS. And if Artemis one goes well, Nasa hopes to launch a crewed mission to lunar orbit in 2024 with Artemis two, then Artemus three will put astronauts down near the moon's south pole in 2025 or 2026. It would mark the first crewed lunar landing since the Apollo 17 mission back in 1972. But that's all still up in the air. A Nasa will certainly face many challenges along the way. The Artemis program has already been marred by delays and it's years late in the making a billion dollars over budget. The cost of the single mission stands at more than $4 billion if you include everything since the program was first developed a decade ago through the 2025 lunar landing, the price tag adds up to about $93 billion and Nasa is hoping though, it will all be worth a sticker shock when space history is made once again