The Atlantic

NASA Could Go to the Moon Next Year

The agency is willing to ditch its own billion-dollar rocket in favor of a commercial one, to meet a very tight deadline.
Source: Johnson Space Center / NASA

NASA has spent the past decade working on the world’s most powerful rocket. The Space Launch System will stand taller than the Statue of Liberty. It will be capable of lifting more than 200,000 pounds into space. It’s designed to launch American astronauts toward the moon once again.

The SLS is supposed to fly for the first time in June 2020. NASA plans to launch an empty crew capsule on a trip around the moon and back, an important test before putting people on board. But the rocket isn’t ready.

“We’re now understanding better how difficult this project is,” Jim Bridenstine, the NASA administrator, told Congress, which controls the agency’s budget, this week. “And it is going to take some additional time.”

Bridenstine seemed to be setting up another disappointing delay, ready to reassure lawmakers with a new date for the inaugural flight of the

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