Two crew-worth spacecraft appear to sit side by side on their rockets in this NASA picture captured at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, one bound for low-Earth orbit and the other for the far side of the moon.
Why is it amazing?
The photo was captured on Feb. 11, as SpaceX’s Crew-12 Dragon spacecraft “Freedom” and its Falcon 9 rocket (closest to the camera) sat on the pad at Space Launch Complex 40, ready to transport a quartet of astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, along with European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev launched to the ISS on Feb. 13 to begin an eight-month stay aboard the orbital outpost. Upon docking, they’ll join the skeleton crew of three who have been maintaining the station following the medical evacuation of Crew-11 on Jan. 15 in the wake of an undisclosed health issue.
And the one in the back?
Lurking behind is the orange and white bulk of the Artemis 2 Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, which sits unseen in this photo at the white tip of the gigantic launch vehicle. The super heavy rocket is primed, but not yet ready to carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency‘s Jeremy Hansen on a historic 10-day mission to the far side of the moon.
The launch of Artemis 2 has been delayed to no earlier than early March after the super heavy moon rocket sprung a hydrogen fuel leak during a wet dress rehearsal on Feb. 3, when the rocket was fully loaded with propellant to identify and fix potential issues ahead of lift-off.
Upon launching, the rocket’s two white solid fuel boosters will work in concert with the four RS-25 liquid-fueled engines at the base of the core stage to provide a staggering 8.8 million pounds of thrust, making it more powerful than the Saturn V that powered the Apollo-era missions to the moon.
Want to know more?
To find out more why not read our explainer articles for the Space Launch System and the NASA’s Artemis program to return humans to the moon!
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