Nasa gets ready to fly around the Moon

This article appeared as part of the Daily Sensemaker newsletter – one story a day to make sense of the world. To receive it in your inbox, featuring content exclusive to the newsletter, sign up for free here.

Weather permitting, Nasa plans to launch its Artemis II mission today from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This will be the first crewed mission to fly around the Moon in more than 50 years. It is hoped it will pave the way for a future launch to touch down on the lunar surface. The ultimate goal is to build a base on the Moon, which Nasa sees as a crucial step towards sending astronauts to Mars. Another objective is to beat China, which wants to land on the Moon by 2030. Artemis was supposed to get there by 2024 but has been beset by technical problems. It uses Nasa’s Space Launch System, an expendable rocket that costs roughly $2bn per launch. There is already talk of scrapping the SLS after the final phase of the Artemis programme and replacing it with a cheaper, reusable rocket, such as Elon Musk’s Starship.