321 Launch: Space News You May Have Missed Over The Past Week

 NASA’s Space Launch System rocket Artemis I rolls out from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center Tuesday, August 16, 2022. The rocket is headed for Pad 39B in preparation for its launch to the moon. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK

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Welcome to 321 Launch, Florida Today's wrapup of all the space new you might have missed this past week.

It is now less than a week until the planned launch of Artemis I, the first step of returning humans to the moon.

NASA's giant SLS rocket rolled out to the pad at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B overnight last Tuesday, as several hundred space workers, their families and others gathered to watch as the 322-foot eased out of NASA's iconic Vehicle Assembly Building as the rocket began the roughly four-mile crawl to the pad.

NASA officials gave a thumbs up after Monday's "flight readiness review," in which they focused on the preparedness of the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, ground systems at Kennedy, flight operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and space communications and navigations networks to support the flight.

None of this came cheap or easy, though. NASA spent billions of dollars more than originally planned to finish the rocket and took extra years to do so. And at a time when SpaceX has dramatically lowered launch costs by landing boosters on drone ships and re-using them, the SLS rocket will sink to the bottom of the ocean after boosting the Orion capsule on its trip to the moon.

NASA has identified 13 regions near the moon's South Pole as potential landing sites for the Artemis III mission to return humans to the lunar surface.

Meanwhile, NASA has identified potential landing areas for Artemis III, the mission to return humans to the moon. Apollo mission landing sites were all in areas near the moon's equator to guarantee continual exposure to the sunlight needed to power the Lunar Excursion Module. Artemis III will land somewhere near the lunar South Pole. The sites were chosen to put the landing vehicle in sunlight, but close to areas that are in perpetual darkness for the astronauts to explore.

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