Astronauts are ready to return to the moon on Artemis II mission
Artemis II astronauts and the Space Launch System rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida
Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images
Four astronauts prepare to see the Moon as it has never been seen before. NASA’s Artemis II mission, which could launch as early as April 1, will send astronauts around the Moon for the first time since 1972, exploring areas of the far side that no human eye has ever seen.
In the original plan, Artemis II was supposed to fly in 2019, but various delays meant that its precursor, Artemis I, did not take off until 2022. Artemis I, an uncrewed mission around the moon, was the last time the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule flew.
Its successor will repeat a similar flight, this time with four crew members on board: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.
A “wet dress rehearsal” in February revealed problems with the spacecraft – mainly small fuel leaks – that forced NASA to roll the rocket back from the launch pad. Now that those leaks have been fixed, it’s back on the platform and ready to launch, and the astronauts are in quarantine, preparing for the mission to begin.
At a press conference on March 29, Mission Commander Wiseman emphasized that Artemis II was a test flight for SLS and Orion. “This is the first time we’ve tried this. This is the first time we’ve put humans on board,” he said. “The four of us are ready to go, the team is ready to go, the vehicle is ready to go, but not for one second do we expect that we’re going to go. We’ll go when this vehicle tells us it’s ready.”
If the rocket doesn’t take off before April 6, the next launch opportunity will be April 30, and there will be more chances in May and beyond.
Once launched, the rocket will orbit Earth for two days before heading to the Moon. During these two days, the crew will test life support systems as well as docking with an ancient spacecraft by manually piloting the Orion capsule. Then they will spend about eight days flying around the moon and back.
In doing so, parts of the far side will be illuminated, such as a large crater called Mare Orientale, which has never been seen before except by satellite. “We think – I know it was when we first started training for this mission – that we went to the Moon. Apollo was on the Moon. They saw the whole dark side of the Moon. But, in reality, it turns out that there’s about 60 percent of the dark side, I think, that has never been seen by human eyes,” Wiseman said.
Artemis II is a step on the long road to the great Artemis program. Originally, the third phase was to include the first moon landing since the end of the Apollo program in 1972, but recent changes pushed the moon landing back to Artemis IV. Instead, the next mission will remain in orbit around Earth and give astronauts the opportunity to practice docking with the lunar lander(s) that will accompany subsequent missions. Artemis III is planned for 2027, and Artemis IV and perhaps also V are planned for 2028.
If all goes as planned, the culmination of these missions will be a permanent lunar base and a sustained human presence on the Moon. “We’re happy to do our little part, our little drop in the bucket, and then pass the baton when we come back,” Hansen said at the news conference.
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