Enlarge / NASA's Space Launch System, reflected in the turn basin at the Kenendy Space Center in Florida. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla.—It is time.
Shortly after midnight local time, NASA began loading liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen on board its Space Launch System rocket ahead of a Monday morning launch attempt.
It is difficult to overstate the significance of this mission for NASA. This will be the space agency's first launch of one of its own rockets since 2011, the final mission of the space shuttle. Even more significantly, this Artemis I mission is the first stepping stone on a path that could lead NASA, along with a bevy of international partners, back to the Moon and on to Mars.
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