The Conversation - A new era in space exploration?

A massive rocket – the most powerful ever built, according to NASA – is scheduled to blast off as soon as Monday morning. The rocket will bring some small satellites into space, an activity that’s become routine in recent years. But what sets the Artemis 1 mission apart is the empty passenger vehicle slated to fly to and around the Moon before returning to Earth.

That journey is the test flight for a crew capsule that on a subsequent mission, if all goes well, will bring humans back to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century. Among those humans is expected to be the first woman to set foot on the lunar surface.

University of Colorado Boulder space scientist Jack Burns explains how the Artemis program is poised to change space exploration, including making space science – and space commerce – beyond Earth’s orbit a common affair.

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