KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA’s future is looking bright ahead of this weekend’s crewed SpaceX launch as the Kennedy Space Center is eyeing several deep space missions and setting its sights on the moon and beyond.

“We are busy, very busy,” Cliff Lanham told Spectrum News.

Lanham is the operations lead for the Artemis program at the ground level at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The program is aptly named for Apollo’s twin sister. The third phase of the mission is set to bring the first woman and next man to the moon in 2024, more than 50 years after Apollo 11 first touched down in 1969 with Neil Armstrong being the first human to step on Earth’s neighbor.

The last lunar landing was in 1972.

But before that, NASA’s mobile launcher will set off the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft next fall, as part of Artemis I.

“We’re gonna be making sure SLS, the core stage performs well, the boosters perform well,” Lanham explained. “So it’s really a test flight.”

Artemis II adds a crew before it's boots on the ground with Artemis III.

“The technology needed to get us to this point is being developed, has been developed, and will continue to develop,” Lanham said.