Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) will be the first integrated flight test of NASA’s Deep Space Exploration Systems: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, with the newly upgraded Exploration Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The primary operations goal of the mission is to assure a safe crew module entry, descent, splashdown, and recovery. In addition to sending Orion on its journey around the Moon, SLS will carry 13 small satellites that will perform their own science and technology investigations. The first in a series of increasingly complex missions, EM-1 will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond prior to the first flight with crew on Exploration Mission-2.

Exploration Mission-1 is foundational to the space economy, fueling new industries and technologies, supporting job growth, and furthering the demand for a highly skilled work force. Men and women in all fifty states are hard at work building the Deep Space Exploration Systems to support missions to deep space. NASA prime contractors, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Jacobs, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman currently have over 3,200 suppliers contributing to the milestone achievement that heralds the success of America’s human spaceflight program.

America’s Rocket for Deep Space Exploration - Space Launch System (SLS) - NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, is an advanced launch vehicle that provides the foundation for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. With its unprecedented power and capabilities, SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts and large cargo to the Moon on a single mission. Offering more payload mass, volume capability and energy to speed missions through space than any current launch vehicle, SLS is designed to be flexible and evolvable and will open new possibilities for payloads, including robotic scientific missions to places like the Moon, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter.

The Power to Explore Beyond Earth’s Orbit

To fill America’s future needs for deep space missions, SLS will evolve into increasingly more powerful configurations. SLS is designed for deep space missions and will send Orion or other cargo to the Moon, which is nearly 1,000 times farther than where the space station resides in low-Earth orbit. The rocket will provide the power to help Orion reach a speed of at least 24,500 mph needed to break out of low-Earth orbit and travel to the Moon. That is about 7,000 mph faster than the space station travels around Earth.

Music: Spirit Must Train by Dhruva Aliman
https://dhruvaaliman.bandcamp.com/album/road-of-fortunes
http://www.dhruvaaliman.com/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/5XiFCr9iBKE6Cupltgnlet