NASA's Artemis Moon Rockets: Construction, Testing, and Training for Historic Lunar Mission

NASA's Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts back to the Moon, is progressing well despite a welding issue that has temporarily slowed production on the third core stage. All four RS-25 core stage engines have been successfully installed onto the booster of the second Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The revamped RS-25 engines have also undergone a successful certification test. However, NASA is facing criticism over the sustainability and affordability of the project, with doubts raised about the $4.2 billion per launch cost of the fully expendable SLS Moon rocket.