NASA is planning another moon mission wherein a giant rocket will take astronauts to the moon, again. The space agency head, Jim Bridenstine informed that the core stage for the SLS rocket is complete and called it “a very important day” for NASA. He also pledged that the mission will be launched by 2024.

NASA is planning to return to the moon and start preparing for a mission to Mars post-2030. It has designed a 212 feet (65 meters) SLS rocket for the mission – the tallest rocket ever built. It is also the most powerful rocket designed to date which will reach a record-breaking speed of Mach 23 before separating at the upper stage.

It is a part of the Artemis series of rockets, which is a part of NASA’s spaceflight program. The space agency has partnered with the European, Japanese and Canadian space agencies for the manned missions. Artemis 1 will launch the Orion spacecraft which will orbit the moon. Artemis 2 and 3 will be crewed missions. While Artemis 2 will only do a lunar flyby and return to earth, Artemis 3 is a manned mission to land on the moon.

The Artemis 1 is expected to be launched by 2020, the Artemis 2 by 2022 and then finally the Artemis 3 in 2024.

"We are making significant progress towards achieving that Artemis 3 mission and getting our first woman, and next man to the south pole of the Moon in 2024," Bridenstine stated at a press briefing at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

The project has been repeatedly hit by delays. Its first flight was expected to take place in November 2018 and the delay has raised the project cost from $6.2 billion to $8billion – an increase of a whopping 29 percent.

The fate of the project is dependent on continued support from the White House and the Congress, which will clear its budget.

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