Washington, (AFP) - The new giant American rocket "SLS" of the US Space Agency ( NASA ) arrived on Wednesday at the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, before its scheduled takeoff to the moon at the end of this month.

This mission will mark the first flight in the framework of the massive American "Artemis" program to return to the moon.

The "Artemis 1" mission will be unmanned, as its goal is to test the rocket and the "Orion" capsule installed on its head to ensure that they can safely transport human crews to the moon, starting in 2024.

The rocket, called the SLS ("Space Launch System" or "Space Launch System"), has been in development for more than a decade and will be the most powerful in the world once it is operational. Its height is 98 meters.

The missile was installed at the famous "39B" launch site after being transported at night for a ten-hour drive from the assembly building.

"For all of us who look at the moon and dream of the day humanity will return to its surface, friends, here we go again," NASA chief Bill Nelson said at a press conference.

The Orion capsule will be pushed to the moon, and even farther from it, by a distance of 64,000 km, to reach a point farther than any manned spacecraft before it.

Upon its return to the earth's atmosphere, the heat shield will withstand a speed of approximately forty thousand kilometers per hour and a temperature two times lower than that of the sun's surface.

The mission is scheduled to launch on August 29 at 08:33 local time.

And if the weather conditions are not favorable, the launch can be postponed to the second or fifth of September.

The mission is expected to last 42 days, until returning to the Pacific Ocean, where the vehicle will be transported via a US Navy ship.