Watch NASA count down to the launch of the first manned lunar mission in nearly 54 years
After years of delays and close to $100 billion in spending, NASA is finally counting down to its first attempt to send astronauts to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The 10-day program for Artemis 2 is expected to begin today with the launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket at NASA’s historic Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 pm ET (3:24 pm PT), and NASA is live streaming the mission countdown on two separate YouTube channels.
NASA has advanced the 322-meter long SLS rocket with liquid hydrogen and oxygen, and there is an 80% chance of favorable weather for the launch. Rain showers are the main concern.
Artemis 2 is the team’s first probe in a series leading up to the moon landing currently scheduled for 2028. It follows Artemis 1, which sent the unmanned Orion space capsule to the moon in 2022. This time, four astronauts will be riding inside Orion: NASA mission commander Reid Wisenaut and Victorina Christina Kostrona NASA, Victorinat Christina Kostronou astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Koch will be the first woman to exceed Earth orbit, and Hansen will be the first non-American to do so.
Although the astronauts will not land on the lunar surface, they will follow a figure-8 trajectory that will send them 4,700 miles across the moon and make them the farthest travelers in human history.
Last week, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman made a plan to establish a permanent base on the moon and prepare for an even longer journey to the solar system. On the eve of the launch, Isaacman teased the importance of Artemis 2 to that plan. “The next season of exploration begins,” he said in a post on X.
Executive director of exploration Jeff Spaulding, a veteran of the space travel program, said he is looking forward to the mission. “I’m happy to go to the moon,” he told reporters. “I’m excited to be there. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, for years – and get people out to Mars.”
The health of the Artemis 2 astronauts will be monitored during the flight to assess the effects of deep space travel. The crew will also test Orion’s performance and familiarize themselves with flight safety procedures. For example, they will practice a protocol for sheltering from radiation storms that may erupt during a trip through Earth’s protective magnetosphere. They will also participate in exploration and exploration of the far side of the moon.
“They will be able to see the entire moon as a lunar disk on the far side of the moon,” said Marie Henderson, deputy lunar scientist on the Artemis 2 mission, in a NASA video. So, that’s a new, unique perspective that people haven’t looked at before.”
At the end of the mission, the crew and their Orion capsule are expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. They will be brought aboard a recovery ship for medical examination and returned to shore, following standard Apollo-era practice.
Artemis 2 is about the history of the American space program and its future. The profile of the lunar orbit mission is similar to that of Apollo 8, which served as a rallying event for a nation engulfed in the social upheaval of the time. The commander of that force, Frank Borman, reported receiving a telegram saying, “Congratulations to the Apollo 8 crew. You saved 1968.” Notably, less than one-third of Americans alive today were present when Apollo 8 flew.
The primary motivation for the Apollo program was the superpower rivalry between America and the Soviet Union, and today, the geopolitical stakes are just as high. NASA and the White House want to start progress on Artemis in part because China is aiming to land on the moon by 2030.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said this week during a visit to Seattle-area suppliers for the Artemis program that it was important for America to get to the moon first. “We’re trying to find the best place on the moon,” he said. “So, in order to do that, you have to go up there to look for it.”
The course of the Artemis program, named after the goddess of the moon and Apollo’s twin in Greek mythology, did not always go well. When the program was given its name in 2019, the Artemis 2 mission was planned for 2022 or 2023, with a lunar landing planned for 2024. The cost of this program is estimated at $93 billion by 2025, and each Artemis launch costs $4.1 billion.
The Artemis 2 launch team encountered several challenges during preparations for this year’s launch. Liftoff was scheduled for February, but a liquid hydrogen leak forced NASA to restart the launch in March. The launch date was reset again when a helium pressure problem required the rocket to be pulled back to fix it. SLS returned to the field on March 20, and preparations have been going smoothly since then.
Many companies in the Seattle area are banking on Artemis’ success. For example, the Redmond facility operated by L3Harris (formerly known as Aerojet Rocketdyne) builds thrusters for the Orion spacecraft and is already working on the Artemis 8 mission.
Boeing is the lead contractor for the main stage of the SLS rocket. Karman Space & Defense in Mukilteo provides hatch release mechanisms and parachute deployment hardware for the Orion. And Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space company, based in Kent, is building a Blue Moon lander that the future Artemis crew could take to the lunar surface.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is expected to send an unmanned cargo version to the moon sometime in the next few months.
