The first of these missions is set for November 2018, when NASA's powerful new rocket, the Space Launch System, will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission, Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), will carry the Orion spacecraft (without astronauts) thousands of miles beyond the moon during an approximately three week mission. Next up, astronauts will climb into Orion for a similar mission, traveling farther than humans have ever traveled before. (Watch Video: Exploration Mission-1).