NASA's Artemis 1 moon mission will be the agency's first big step toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface.

Formerly known as Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), Artemis 1 will be the first test flight of the agency's

new Space Launch System megarocket and the Orion crew capsule.

The SLS rocket will launch the uncrewed Orion spacecraft on an approximately 26-day mission,

during which it will spend six days orbiting the moon before returning to Earth

ARTEMIS 1 TARGETS AUG. 29 LAUNCH DATE

NASA's moon megarocket is scheduled to fly its first mission as soon as late August,

pending testing and reviews of all the components of Artemis 1

The agency announced today (July 20) that it has three "placeholder" launch dates

for the uncrewed test flight around the moon: Aug. 29, Sept. 2 and Sept. 5.