The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration reported on Monday that its engineers and technicians had completed all tests and checkouts of the Artemis I Moon rocket. Artemis I can now be rolled out to Kennedy Space Centre’s (KSC’s) Launch Pad 39B, for launch, which is currently planned for August 29. KSC is located at Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida.

With Artemis, Nasa is resuming crewed deep space exploration missions, firstly to the Moon, then probably to selected asteroids, but ultimately to Mars. The Artemis programme will see the first woman and the first person of colour land on the Moon. However, this first mission, Artemis I, will be an uncrewed test flight (although it will carry scientific experiments and deploy a number of scientific CubeSats). The first crewed mission will be Artemis II, while Artemis III will be the first to land on the Moon.

An Artemis mission is composed of an Orion spacecraft and its associated Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), both launched into high Earth orbit by a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The ICPS then propels the Orion out of Earth orbit and into deeper space, before separating from the Orion. The ICPS can also be used to deploy satellites. The Orion itself is composed of the US-designed and -built Orion capsule and the European-designed and -built European Service Module, supplied by the European Space Agency.

The final tests and checkouts on Artemis I were conducted in KSC’s Vehicular Assembly Building (VAB). Artemis I had previously been rolled out of the VAB to Launch Pad 39B for a crucially-important series of tests and ‘dress rehearsals’ during June, which took the rocket almost to the point of launch. As planned, it was then rolled back to the VAB for final checks, tests and replacement of ‘consumable’ components that had been used up in the rehearsals.

This process has now been completed. The gantries and platforms which gave access to the Orion, ICPS and the SLS have been withdrawn. The giant crawler-transporter which carries the entire rocket to the launch pad has been moved into the VAB and underneath Artemis I. The integrated spacecraft and rocket stack is now being prepared for the roll-out to the launch pad.

In terms of programme terminology, Nasa’s last crewed Moon mission programme was designated Apollo. In Greek mythology, the goddess Artemis was the sister of Apollo.