You just really can't imagine everything that goes into preparing for a launch.

T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5. 3, 2, 1, 0, and lift off of space shuttle and land.

There are hundreds of people that are involved.

There are people across the country that are responsible for various aspects of the launch.

Houston now controlling.

Atlantis begins its penultimate journey to shore off the International Space Station.

We have to make sure that all the systems are running.

We're looking at data that's coming from each one of those systems.

We have thousands of sensors on the rocket.

Atlanta is now on the proper alignment for its eight and a half minute wind to orbit.

I have been working on this project from almost the very beginning of it and to see all these components come together and all these systems is just something that I cannot wait to see and to be there on that day and to hear the rocket engines roar and to see it lift off of the pad will be something that I just dream about.

I just can't wait.

This is NASA's Curious Universe.

Our universe is a wild and wonderful place. I'm Patty Boyd and in this podcast, NASA is your

tour guide. Teams across NASA are gearing up for a very exciting launch called Artemis I.

This launch will be the first in a series of Artemis missions, which will culminate in bringing

humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972.

If everything goes according to plan, the first uncrewed test flight, Artemis I, will take off

later this year in 2021 out of Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The new rocket that will take us back to the moon and beyond is called the Space Launch System, or SLS.

But how exactly does such a complicated machine come together?

It takes a lot of moving pieces and a team of people paying very close attention.

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