NASA’s return to the Moon began in November 2022 with the successful Artemis I launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Kennedy Space Center. During launch and ascent, the SLS produced 8.8 million pounds of maximum thrust, placing an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into orbit 280,000 miles from Earth, breaking the record set by Apollo 13 for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed for human spaceflight.
With its robust payload mass, volume and energy capacities, SLS is today the world’s most powerful, fully operational deep-space rocket. Standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 322 feet, the SLS and Orion stack will soon launch the Artemis II mission and its four astronauts on the first crewed flyby of the Moon in more than half a century.
Like its predecessor the Apollo program, the Artemis campaign represents one of the most massive, complex technical undertakings in human history, involving collaborators across all space sectors. As a trusted partner in supporting NASA’s Moon to Mars objectives, The Aerospace Corporation is contributing launch systems expertise to Artemis that has been honed over decades of advancing the nation’s space missions.