Is Artemis 1 The Most Powerful Rocket?

Artemis 1 is a planned unmanned Moon-orbiting mission and the first spaceflight in NASA’s Artemis programme.

The Space Launch System rocket that will carry the unmanned Orion capsule to the moon in the Artemis 1 mission is NASA’s most powerful rocket to date.

When fully fueled for launch, it weighs 5.75 million pounds but can climb nearly 500 feet straight up in just seven seconds.

If the RS-25 engines’ energy output were converted into electricity, it would power nearly 850,000 miles of streetlights on a road stretching to the moon and back, then 15 times around the Earth.

The four engines deliver twice the power required to propel ten Nimitz-class aircraft carriers at 30 knots. Each of the four core stage engines uses 1,500 gallons of propellant per second, which is enough to drain a 20,000-gallon swimming pool in 13 seconds.

The test flight is currently scheduled to launch on August 29, 2022, at 12:33 UTC from the Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B, where Apollo 10 launched 53 years ago.