there are something out there that could be of interest, like helium 3 that could be used as a fusion reactor in the future. i understand the importance of it. but for the playperson, who might be thinking, we ve already we ve already sent astronauts to the moon. why is all of this necessary? why will there be another artemis mission with astronauts onboard, just circling, and doing the same journey that this one did? why is all of that necessary, why can t we go back sooner? sure. the issue of landing humans on the moon, we don t have a lander yesterday. nasa has contracts out, some of the contractors including spaceex to help develop these landers, but it s going to take a little while for us to do that. in the meantime, we need to shake the flight test out, really when the rubber meets the road, when you put a human crew onboard and see how the vehicle performs with actual astronauts operating the vehicle and, you
we ve never seen such a tail of flame. this is just the test flight. we re stretching it and testing it in ways we will not do to a rocket that has a human crew on it. reporter: artemis is the twin of apollo. in 2025 a woman and person of color will climb inside the orion space capsule and land on the moon for the first time since 1972. the ultimate goal build a lunar base and space station for future missions to mars. just like apollo, the astronauts will liftoff on their backs. there s 30% more room inside
it s taken years. the usual delays that you have. if this doesn t work, what does that mean for nasa? well, it s going to work. this first flight is a test. we test it. we stress it. we make this rocket and the spacecraft do things that we would never do with a human crew. the main purpose of the flight is to test the heat shield because you can t test that in a lab. reporter: right. so if the heat shield survives and does what it s expected to do, it s a successful test. so then we are ready in two years. reporter: you made it clear, you re stress testing meaning you may push this to the limit where it looks like an accident, but if it is, that is not necessarily a failure. you can expect in a test flight that everything is not going to go as you expect it to. that is part of a test flight.
we make this rocket and spacecraft do things we would never do with a human crew. the main purpose is to test the heat shield. you can t test that in a lab. joining me now is retired nasa astronaut leroy chao who is also a former commander of the international space station. hi, leroy. even though this flight is unmanned, what makes it so important? why should people watching right now care about this? it s always exciting when there is a launch of a new vehicle and this has been a long time coming. this rocket is actually has more thrust. generates more thrust at lift-off than the saturn 5 moon rockets. it is an exciting thing, a long time coming. the first iteration of this program if you will was around 2004-2005. got redesigned by the obama administration in part because of the committee that i was part
right. and obviously the heat shield is so critical here, so instead of having actual people on board, you re going to have these mannequins and i have a lot of questions about these mannequins. one, i would like for you to send me one so i can put it in john berman s office when he s not looking. two, the mannequins, people are remarking how creepy they look, but they re important to have them there as you wait to see that actual people can be on board, right? in particular we are going to make sure that the radiation that those mannequins receive is acceptable. of course, if there is a solar explosion with a human crew, we re going to have to figure out a way that we can try to protect them from that radiation. and this is all a part of the testing process. and, kaitlan, i ll give you a little secret, they closed out orien, the hatch, two nights ago, the last thing that they