When NASA launches its first integrated SLS and Orion mission next year, it may be a manned mission after all.
- NASA to study adding crew to first SLS-Orion mission
- Exploration Mission-1 set for late 2018
- Was supposed to be an unmanned mission
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In late 2018 NASA is expected to launch Exploration Mission-1 from Kennedy Space Center.
The mission would be the first test for the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule, but it is not supposed to be a manned mission. It's supposed to be a test mission before sending a crew out.
But NASA announced Wednesday that acting administrator Robert Lightfood has asked Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration, to start a study to decide whether it is feasible to add a crew to Exploration Mission-1.
The mission is seen as a first step in returning U.S. astronauts to the moon, and eventually go to Mars.
The SLS and Orion would travel thousands of miles beyond the moon in a mission lasting about three weeks.
Exploration Mission-1 is expected to launch from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 29b in late 2018.
- RELATED: NASA Orion spacecraft details