US Completes Work On Orion Crew Capsule, To Launch Spacecraft Around Moon - NASA

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2019) The United States completed the work on the Orion crew capsule for the first Artemis lunar mission and will launch the spacecraft around the Moon, NASA said in a statement.

"Vice President Mike Pence visited and gave remarks in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the agency's Apollo 11 Moon landing and announce to America the completion of NASA's Orion crew capsule for the first Artemis lunar mission," the statement said on Saturday.

NASA stressed that it would organize a test flight around the Moon to prepare for a future new manned mission to the Earth's satellite.

"Artemis 1 will launch NASA's Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket around the Moon to test the system and pave the way for landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon in five years, as well as future missions to Mars," the statement added.