Is NASA’s new moon rocket ready to take on Elon Musk?

What does the future hold for the $17 billion Moon rocket that NASA is finally bringing to the launch pad?

Today, the US space agency is issuing an update on Artemis, its effort to put the next generation of US astronauts on the Moon. Next month, engineers will prep the Boeing-built Space Launch System, a 98-meter-tall launch vehicle more powerful than the Saturn V rocket of the Apollo years, for a final dress rehearsal. Then, they’ll set the date for an uncrewed mission to the Moon later this year, known as Artemis 1.

That mission, originally expected in 2020 and now billions of dollars over budget (pdf), is aimed to prove out the SLS and its space capsule, Orion, before the first crewed mission orbits the Moon sometime in 2023.  A third mission with a goal of putting a landing party in orbit around the Moon could happen in 2025.

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