The first lunar rocket launched by NASA in five decades is expected to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center off the coast of Florida on August 29.

NASA is preparing to launch the unmanned Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule as part of the agency's Artemis 1 mission, which plans to return American astronauts to the lunar surface.

The Daily Mail reports that this mission is a test for technologies that could eventually lead to landing on Mars.

At the heart of Artemis 1 is the Space Launch System, SLS for short, NASA's largest rocket project since the Saturn V, the Telegraph reports.

The SLS is scheduled to launch on August 29 from launch pad 39B.

If weather causes the delay, the other two possible takeoff dates are September 2 and 5.

If all goes according to plan, NASA expects to launch Artemis 2, an unmanned near-moon flight, in 2023, before landing American astronauts on the lunar surface in 2025 as part of the Artemis 3 project.

The Artemis project will enable the landing of astronauts on the moon every year until the end of the decade, starting in 2025. At that stage, the price of the Artemis project will have increased to 93 billion euros.

Astronauts who land on the Moon will build a space station and a space base at the lunar South Pole.

The technologies used in this mission will serve to help NASA toward its ultimate goal, a manned expedition to Mars.

Those missions are scheduled to begin in the early 2040s.

If the Artemis 1 mission is successful, it will hover about 90 kilometers above the surface of the Moon, in 2024 Artemis 2 will perform a flyby near the lunar surface with 4 astronauts on board.

And by 2025, astronauts are expected to set foot on the moon.

NASA's Inspector General earlier this year stated that 2026 is a more realistic target for landing astronauts on the Moon.

Artemis 3, which will be the name of the lunar landing mission, will most likely have a capsule manufactured by Elon Musk's company, SpaceX.

In 2021, Musk had won a contract of 2.91 billion euros from NASA for the development of this project.

The astronauts who will go to the Moon will be the first people to walk on the surface for the first time since 1972.