NASA’s much-awaited Artemis II mission is set to launch as soon as March 6, 2024. We understand just how significant this mission will be, as a groundbreaking milestone in deep space exploration. It’s designed to carry astronauts farther into deep space than any human has traveled before. A crew of four astronauts have a mission to get us back home to the Moon. This effort will lead to our first human landing on its surface since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s.
The Artemis II mission will last approximately 10 days. It will include the first crewed flight of NASA’s new massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the associated Orion space capsule. The SLS rocket, standing 98 meters (320 feet) tall, is intended to carry astronauts past low Earth orbit for the first time in a decade. The crew will include NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, and Christina Wiseman. They’ll be living in only nine cubic meters of space during their entire journey.
Throughout this crew’s historic mission, Artemis II astronauts will put the Orion spacecraft’s systems to the test. Telemetry collected during these tests will be used to validate life-support, propulsion, power and navigation systems. And these astronauts, as they return through Earth’s atmosphere in a fiery, turbulent descent, will have a unique perspective on this tremendous mission. It will all finish up with a dramatic splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, just off the west coast of the United States.
The next Artemis mission, Artemis II, will include a thrilling lunar flyby. That will take the spacecraft to just about 6,000 km above the Moon’s surface! Through this, it will provide NASA with key data and knowledge necessary to ensure future missions are successful. Immediately following Artemis II, the agency should turn its attention towards developing Artemis IV and V. These missions will be focused on building Gateway, a small space station that will orbit the Moon.
As designed, NASA’s Artemis program is intended to return humans to the surface of the moon. It’s a driver of international collaboration in space exploration. European astronauts will be a part of later Artemis missions, sending their astronauts to the Moon, with Japan winning seats for its space travelers.