Join NASA as they get ready for the Artemis II mission, setting the stage for humanity’s next giant leap into deep space, and how you can follow along. The mission is scheduled to launch as early as March 6, 2024. It will be a little over ten days long and take astronauts farther into space than any human has ever traveled before.
This year saw NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed flight of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. It demonstrates the Orion deep space capsule’s first test run. This ambitious undertaking prepares the way for humanity to set foot on the lunar surface again. If successful, it will be the first such mission since the human-crewed Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s. This spectacular launch will take place at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. You’ll get four additional opportunities to launch in early March and five more in the first week of April.
Picture this though—while they’re in space, all four astronauts will be seated inside the Orion crew module. They will be connected together in two pairs, stacked one pair on the other and facing up, back to ground assembly. They will be living in just under nine cubic meters of habitat. From start to finish, collaboration–public and private–will be the key to their success and execution on that mission. Our astronauts are Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman. Every single one of its members brings a staggering amount of experience and expertise to their ambitious mission.
The campaign’s main objective is to test the Orion capsule’s performance in Earth orbit. The astronauts will assume control and manually fly the capsule through this phase. They’ll learn how to steer and align the spacecraft, getting ready for their eventual Moon landings. Following this first series of testing, the crew will begin their own extraordinary adventure. They’ll journey over 1000s of kms past the Moon to test Orion’s life-support, propulsion, power and navigation systems.
As they begin this historic journey, the astronauts will face many challenges inherent to long missions into space. The lessons learned from Artemis II will provide invaluable data and insights. These will be key for upcoming Artemis missions, which are designed to return humans to the surface of the moon.