How We Make Rockets That Reach the Moon
Join Dr. Roger Billings and the Science Live team as we explore how we make rockets that reach the Moon, featuring NASA’s Artemis II mission — the first crewed return to the Moon in over 50 years!
In this lesson, discover what makes the massive SLS rocket so powerful: its giant solid rocket boosters, liquid hydrogen fuel, and the incredible engineering that lifts millions of pounds into space. You’ll also explore the advanced Orion spacecraft, the groundbreaking laser communication system that beamed HD video from 240,000 miles away, and the record-breaking 252,000-mile journey that took humans farther from Earth than ever before.
Whether you’re a budding space enthusiast, curious about the Artemis program, learning about rocket science, or dreaming of becoming an astronaut, this lesson has something for you. Perfect for students who want to understand the real engineering and technology behind sending rockets — and people — all the way to the Moon and beyond!
About DrB
Read more about DrB »
About the Roger Billings Scholarship Program »
The video was so fun to watch.
The boosters are filled with a special mixture, consisting of ammonium per chlorine, which is an oxidizer aluminum for fuel iron oxide, which is a polymer to bind the ingredients together and an epoxy curing agent
Hi from South Carolina
WOW! that is incredible that they were over 200,000 ish miles away from us! Really cool and I never realized that there was Earthshine! Loved this Science live !
Very fun Science Live, always interesting to learn more about space travel.
Spaceships are so incredible!
Amazing how big the spaceship was that we just sent too the moon
this was a great video Science Live is awesome
Great video this week
The Artemis II launch was so awesome
I honestly love these videos!
Thank You Science Live
I really thought the topic was at a perfect timing considering other events that happened.
Hello from Florida!!!!!!!!!!!
how do rockets turn back on course?
Woah, that’s incredable that there is Earthshine!
It’s always exciting to tune into Science Live!
I can’t wait to see Artemis IV land on the moon, because then we get to return to the moon after so long.
Thanks, cool to watch
I found this very interesting!
This was an extremely interesting Science Live! Super excited for next week’s episode
cant wait to watch!!
The fact that kerosene burns and leaves the engine clean is interesting to me that is pretty cool.
it’s really cool
Wow, that’s pretty amazing a rocket weighing six million pounds. The scene in the control room, waiting to hear from the astronauts after six minutes, looked incredibly intense.
Hello from Michigan! I love this topic so much!
this is really interesting
I loved this one, science live is the best!
A new communication system is about shooting lasers.
The Artemis II launch was so amazing to watch! I am so proud of them 🙂
So cool to watch and learn more about rockets.
The Artemis 2 rocket is really interesting , I can’t believe that is so tall!
Great live today!
I love science live.
I never knew the orange on rocket was the insulator. Or that rock of fuel was very cold to learn something new every day from you guys! <3
it was interesting to see inside the Artemis II
This episode was amazing.
Hi from Georgia! Also, I’m so glad I finally know what those side rockets on the rocketship are 😁
I know its so cool to learn about. I’m signing in from kentucky
Hi! Alexis here from Ithaca,NY! I Santa to meet Roger billings in person at the place they always do science live!
Hello from NY!🙂 I just wanted to say that I think the Artemis mission is super interesting, I learned so much. And as always, R51 was hilarious. Is that just Mr. Billings with a filter on?
ya I thought the same thing with the filter we need the truth
@Dalis, WHY YES IT IS. I’ve thought ever since they put R-51 on Science Live that it was Mr. Billings with a filter on 🤣
Science live is so fun, soon we are gonnna go see it in person!
❤️ We look forward to meeting you Nadia!
wohhh you can reply!!!!! that’s cool and Hello
Thank you so much!!!
i can’t see it on mine but my brother showed me that science live said they look forward to seeing mee!!! thats so cool!!!
Science is so interesting
Interesting video
loved the Artemis 2 launch
Thank you for taking the time to make these videos
thank you for posting these amazing videos every week!!
It was extremely cool to watch the Artemis II launch and them return home, such a milestone in human history
This was so fun to watch!
Great video, thank you!!
How many rockets have been sent to the moon ?
Wow rockets are a lot cooler than I thought
I watched Artemis II land a little bit ago, really cool!
science live is cool
Loved this one!!!!
Hello! I am only a freshman but the college prep English sounds so amazing. I can’t wait till I get to take the class. thank you.
I loved learning about rockets, science live is always so fun and creative!
It was very fascinating to learn about the rockets!
Mars Rocks!!!!
good joke ya now when he said moon rocks well you say mars rocks
love science live!!!
Love this video!
it’s very interesting to know more about space than our own oceans. But I do understand why we are going to space instead of he ocean: we already tried, we tried many times, it’s just the pressure is a problem. Anyways, I hope we see more of NASA in science live.
Amazing!! I love scienceee
Is there a possibility that we could send balloons to the moon? Or wouldn’t the balloon pop before, due to things in the sky, like birds!
@Arabella, the balloon would probably pop due to bird damage before very long. However, even without the bird-factor, the balloon would not have enough thrust to break through Earth’s atmosphere. it would just keep calmly orbiting, floating around and around the world….
It was extremely cool to watch the Artemis II launch and them return home, such an accomplishment!!
I love that we got to learn about the rocket and space amazing.
I liked the part with the parachutes
Loved this live
excellent. Love everything about Artemis
WERE ARE THE PROTÉGÉS ?!
I never realized that there was Earthshine!
how big and wide was the fossil for the crocodile that ate dinos?, because they will not know that the crocodile that ate dinos was even real?
I love science live
Amazing episode. I really liked watching the rocket launch. Can’t wait until next episode.
Thanks for this weeks Science Live episode! I think it’s really cool to have been able to be apart of watching NASA’s Artemis II mission, especially since it’s the first crewed return to the moon in so long!
I liked learning about the gravity around the moon!
Watching Artemis on the news was cool, so learning more about it is great! Thank you!
wow so cool
I can’t wait to go to the space center this summer!
Thanks for the live it was really good.
Knowledge about rockets has always fascinated and intrigued for me. Thank you for the lesson, it has helped me learn so much interesting information.
How much oil, metals, minerals , energy , and money dose it take to build a rocket to go to the moon??
When was NASA created?
while i have no interest in becoming an astronaut i do find their jobs fascinating, and im so happy about Artemis II’s flight.
Science life is always so intersting.
I loved this science live!
We got watch the liftoff of Artemis lol. Very exciting time to be alive.
I’m taking a dual credit English course so I don’t have one through Acellus. How is this going to impact me if it does at all?
Good question! If you plan to graduate through Acellus Academy you’ll need at least one English credit through Acellus, for all the details visit: Graduation Requirements
Science live1
have a great rest of of your week
science live is awesome!
I cant wait for next weeks science live!
hi from c.t gavin Kelley here pls let me know when nasa makes it possible to preform hyper drive like star wars also make it so you can do acellus on meta qwest and oculus I LOVE SPAAAAAAAAAAAAACE . 😉
Comment I thought the rockets part was cool
Great message to stay curious and keep asking questions!
This one was very interesting one of my favorites.
I like r51 that he launched the “first “ rocket 🚀
I love science live it was the best! My favorite part is when R-51 had fake moon and mars rocks it was the funniest thing ever in my life. rockets are the best to learn on science live it was really cool even if it talks about the moo that I see all the time.
Artemis 2 was very fun to watch.
This live is great
Very interesting live loved it!
here from florida
do you think nasa will build a colony on the moon or no
How did you get the rocket to fly at the end
You’d have to ask r-51! 😂
r-51 how did you get the rocket to fly at the end?
Amazing information!
I love how she finished his project for him. Till next time!
i love these!!
I had to watch Apollo 13 a couple of weeks ago for a college course I am taking as a dual enrollment student. For an old movie it was really good!
This episode is awesome, it’s so cool learning about space missions!
the Artemis launch was so cool to watch!
Oh MY GOd! I love rockets!
Rockets are so cool! Thanks for another amazing live!
Hi! Great video as always!
Science lives never fail to amaze me!!
hi from Tennessee
The solid fuel used in Artemis 2 is Polybutadiene Acrylonitrile (PBAN) .
Wow. This was very cool to listen to on how rockets are made to reach the moon. A lot of new information for me. Keep up the hard work.
i love you science live *
this science live was amzing
why is the rocket so big?
I really enjoyed this science live because rockets are very cool.
Loved this episode!
Good job for making everything for students to learn, can we please have more please please please
I think that the astronauts are lucky to go around the moon. I don’t think I would enjoy not having a toilet
Thanks for this weeks Science Live episode! I think it’s really cool to have been able to be apart of watching NASA’s Artemis II mission, especially since it’s the first crewed return to the moon in so long!
I was gonna say the same thing!!
Dr.Billings do you think that NASA is going to set up a colony on the moon. There would be multipul advantages in doing so. Some being the astronauts would have a more stable place to stay in between missions, and there could be valuable resources on the moon that would help to advance NASA’s understanding when it comes to space, and just in general it would be pretty cool.
i love science live so much its so insteresting i wish we can do it twice a week instead of once a week
We agree Sumaya! But guess what?? — You don’t have to wait! You can watch more episodes any time: View Episodes 🔬
love theses vids
I think my favorite things about science all have to do with space.
Space is so interesting due to the fact that we know very little about it given how vast it is.
How long does it take to get to the moon?
I really enjoyed watching this week’s live.
this was a great one
so cool rockets are so awesome
loved this one so much science live is the best
Great Video!
I loved this new and interesting episode, keep up the good work!
This episode was so fun!
signing in from fl
I really love these videos!
I’m sorry I didn’t join the live in time but I’m watching it today
I’ve launched model rockets for fun a few times.
This live was great!
i loved learning about artemis 2 launch
Hey from Tennessee! Great episode
My family just watched Apollo 13 like two weeks ago so learning more about the space program in Science Live was really cool.
love the live
Love this video!
its so fun to learn from Dr, Billings, have a good day everyone!
Hi from TN 🙂
I watched the livestream of the Artemis 2 launch. It was so cool!
i agree
i watch it on base
Great episode this week!
Is there a possibility that we could send balloons to the moon? And have r 51 be the first ‘human’ on the moon? South Carolina.
@Weston, a balloon wouldn’t have enough thrust to escape Earth’s gravity. It would just keep orbiting. God bless
This was an cool lesson i really enjoyed it
hi! watching from michigan!
Thank you for this weeks video me and my family thought the mission to space was so awesome I can’t wait for next weeks video.
Hello from texas! great vidoe
This so fun
Great episode as always!
With rockets I usually also thought (referring to a comment) that it was a tight space, I had recently seen a video on how the spacecraft looked like and how sleeping worked in zero-gravity situations. I’m very intrigued with space stuff, gotta be my favorite! Thanks for the video! Keep it up with informing me with more science facts/studies!
Replay- Hi from MO
It is really interesting how they are going to put a moon station orbiting the moon.
My favorite part was when Tobias was talking about the Artemis 2 mission. I loved this video, and I think that the Artemis mission was amazing. I can’t wait for next week!
Hello science live.
I liked when R51 thought he invented the Artemis rocket, but NASA did instead. I liked when DR billings told us to study and work hard.
WOW this was such a cool video.
Happy Wednesday everyone!!!
I love rockets. They’re so cool and I can’t wait for the next video.
Hi, I’m Alyce. I’m watching from New Jersey! Thank you science live!
im really excited that we are hopefully going back on the moon soon!
Happy Thursday from S.C.
Hi from North Carolina
or 51 is cool for me .
Hi from North Carolina.
This video was very interesting today 🙂
Loved this weeks topic considering the timing. Very relevant and fun to learn.
I don’t have any toys rockets 🚀
Wow, I love Science LIVE.