NASA’s Artemis II mission is poised to take a significant leap into deep space exploration, marked by the first crewed flight of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion space capsule. The short-duration mission, which will launch in the coming months, will return to Earth in approximately 10 days. In the process, they’ll help their three American crewmates to begin a historic journey that could take humanity farther into space than ever before.
From left to right, crew members of Artemis II include astronauts who prepare to traverse the great expanse of space. Then they’ll serve an important role as indispensable human medical experimenters. Along the way, they’ll return the critical science data and breathtaking imagery of distant worlds. This data will be crucial in helping to move human spaceflight further along. During their flight, the crew will live and work in a space smaller than nine cubic meters. This pattern highlights the difficulties of pursuing long-duration missions in a confined space.
Orion astronauts — virtually, or perhaps for real — will take manual control of the capsule during complex maneuvers in orbit. They’ll rehearse critical navigation skills that will be required for future Moon landings. This part of the mission will focus on navigating the spacecraft in Earth orbit to get things aligned and pointed in the right direction. Shortly after this training, they’ll be traveling thousands of kilometers past the Moon. There, they will perform tests on Orion’s life-support, propulsion, power and navigation systems.
With Artemis II, we have a thrilling voyage ahead. The initiative is meant to lead to a human landing on the lunar surface, the first since NASA’s Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s. The successful flight of Artemis II will pave the way for increasingly ambitious missions. Artemis V is now targeted for a landing on the Moon in 2028! This mission, however, is a small piece of a larger strategy. It seeks to establish a long-term, sustainable human presence on the Moon by enabling more frequent landings, improving the Lunar Gateway, and adding new robotic rovers to explore the surface.
Countries around the globe are hot on the trail of their own lunar agendas. Many of them have their sights squarely on the Moon as the focus and proving ground for crewed missions in the 2030s. European astronauts are slated to take part in later Artemis missions, and Japan has gained seats for its astronauts on future missions. The creation of China’s orbiting spacecraft is in full swing. They hope to accomplish a crewed lunar landing close to the Moon’s south pole by 2030.
