NASA’s upcoming Artemis II crewed lunar mission will be a new and exciting space exploration milestone. The team’s target launch date for this exciting mission is as early as March 6, 2024. This mission, like the previous missions, will be ten days long. It will take astronauts farther into space than any human has ever gone! Most importantly, it sets the stage for an eventual human landing on the lunar surface. This mission is reminiscent of the historic Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s.
Artemis II will be NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s first crewed flight. It is the SLS’s maiden flight, scheduled to launch soon, carrying NASA’s new Orion space capsule. This mission is a key stepping stone for testing Orion’s capabilities in Earth orbit. The astronauts will navigate through a challenging environment, including a bumpy return through Earth’s atmosphere, culminating in a splashdown off the west coast of the United States in the Pacific Ocean.
The crew for Artemis II includes four highly qualified astronauts: Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. Victor Glover, a member of NASA’s 2013 astronaut class, was the pilot for SpaceX Crew-1. Mission commander Reid Wiseman is a 27-year US Navy veteran. Christina Koch has worked as a NASA astronaut since 2013. Originally from the Flint, Michigan area, she has led extraordinary advances in the field of space exploration. Jeremy Hansen became a member of the Canadian Space Agency in 2009 following his distinguished career as a fighter pilot.
Our future astronauts will spend 10 days launching points in their mission. They’ll be crammed into roughly nine cubic meters of living space inside the Orion capsule. They’ll be setting out on a journey thousands of kilometers past the Moon. Once there, they’ll assess Orion’s life-support, propulsion, power and navigation systems. This testing is critical to making sure that the upcoming lunar missions are as safe and successful as possible.
Based on the Artemis II launch schedule, there are four additional opportunities in March. It boasts five more launch windows in the first week of April. These target dates serve as a reminder of the shared commitment that exists in advancing human spaceflight and exploration to new heights.