NASA successfully test-fired the massive SLS moon rocket in rural southern Mississippi for 8 minutes, simulating a launch for a lunar mission. "They clearly got the full duration they had planned."
Follow NASA’s journey back to the moon
The United States is planning its first rocket trip to the moon since 1972. The new space race is fueled by private partnerships and out-of-this-world advances in technology. Follow the preparations, from astronaut training to test launches, on the quest for the next moon walk -- which will likely be made by a woman.
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The space agency has started intense planning for high-definition video, photos and possible live streaming from the moon.
The Artemis astronaut corps includes 18 members -- nine women and nine men.
Of the 16 women in NASA's astronaut ranks, nine of them have been chosen to train to walk on the moon as early as 2024.
The space agency must quickly develop new technologies for living and working on the moon if it wants to realize its goal to have astronauts working at a lunar base by 2028.
The president has placed a moon rock in the Oval Office from the last Apollo mission in 1972. Astronauts chipped it from a boulder at the base of the North Massif mountain in the Imbrium Impact Basin.
A high-tech simulator made by Lockheed Martin will be used to teach astronauts how to operate the Orion capsule during planned moon missions.
"It's unlikely that the Biden administration will stick with the goal of 2024, given the funding issues," one official said. "That doesn't mean the moon will fall out of favor. ... It will just take a...
The station, about one-sixth the size of the International Space Station, will serve future missions to the moon.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezo's space company successfully launched a NASA moon landing experiment aboard the company's reusable New Shepard rocket.