NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to lunar orbit in 53 years, is scheduled to launch Wednesday night from Florida.
Breakthrough After 53 Years: Humans Return Towards the Moon
A crewed NASA mission to lunar orbit, Artemis II, is set to launch Wednesday night into Thursday. This marks the first lunar mission with humans aboard in 53 years.
Launch Window and Location
The rocket is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The two-hour launch window opens at 6:24 PM local time (12:24 AM Polish time on Thursday).
The Artemis II Crew
The mission crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Koch will be the first woman, Glover the first African American, and Hansen the first Canadian to travel to lunar orbit.
Mission Duration and Delays
The mission is expected to last 10 days. The launch was originally planned for February 8th, but was postponed due to technical issues, first to early March, and then to April.
Additional possible launch dates extend to Monday, April 6th, inclusive.
Return to the Moon: A Historic First Step
The last crewed flights to reach the Moon were in 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission. Since then, no human has landed on the lunar surface or even flown in orbit around it; all subsequent lunar missions have been uncrewed.
Artemis 1 and Future Missions
In November 2022, the Artemis 1 mission successfully placed the Orion spacecraft into orbit around the Moon and returned it to Earth, without a crew. Originally, Artemis III was planned for a lunar landing, but NASA now intends for the 2027 mission to focus on testing integrated systems and operational capabilities in Earth orbit.
A lunar landing is now scheduled for the Artemis 4 mission in 2028.