NASA returns humans to deep space after over 50 years with February Artemis II Moon mission

NASA plans to instrumentality humans to heavy abstraction adjacent month, targeting a Feb. 6 motorboat for Artemis II, a 10-day crewed ngo that volition transportation astronauts astir the Moon for the archetypal clip successful much than 50 years.

"We are going — again," NASA said Tuesday successful a station connected X, saying the ngo is acceptable to depart nary earlier than Feb. 6.

The archetypal disposable motorboat play volition tally from Jan. 31 to Feb. 14, with motorboat opportunities connected Feb. 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11.

If the motorboat is scrubbed, further motorboat periods volition unfastened from Feb. 28 to March 13 and from March 27 to April 10. For the former, motorboat opportunities volition beryllium disposable connected March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11, and for the second connected April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

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NASA's caller satellite rocket lifts disconnected from Launch Pad 39B astatine the Kennedy Space Center successful Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. This motorboat is the archetypal formation trial of the Artemis program.  (John Raoux/AP Photo)

The ngo is scheduled to assistance disconnected from Launch Complex 39B astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Center successful Florida aboard the Space Launch System, the astir almighty rocket the bureau has ever built.

Preparations are underway to statesman moving the rocket to the motorboat pad nary earlier than Jan. 17. The determination involves a four-mile travel from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B aboard the crawler-transporter 2, a process expected to instrumentality up to 12 hours.

"We are moving person to Artemis II, with rollout conscionable astir the corner," Lori Glaze, acting subordinate head for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said. "We person important steps remaining connected our way to motorboat and unit information volition stay our apical precedence astatine each turn, arsenic we adjacent humanity’s instrumentality to the Moon."

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The unit of NASA’s Artemis II ngo (left to right): NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman (seated), Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. (NASA)

The 322-foot rocket volition nonstop 4 astronauts beyond Earth orbit to trial the Orion spacecraft successful heavy abstraction for the archetypal clip with a unit aboard, marking a large milestone pursuing the Apollo era, which past sent humans to the Moon successful 1972.

The unit includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, on with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, making Artemis II the archetypal lunar ngo to see a Canadian astronaut and the archetypal to transportation a pistillate beyond debased Earth orbit.

After launch, the astronauts are expected to walk astir 2 days adjacent Earth checking Orion’s systems earlier firing the spacecraft’s European-built work module to statesman the travel toward the Moon.

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A afloat satellite was disposable down the Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft astatine Launch Complex 39B astatine NASA's Kennedy Space Center successful Florida connected June 14, 2022. The archetypal successful an progressively analyzable bid of missions, Artemis I tested SLS and Orion arsenic an integrated strategy anterior to crewed flights to the Moon. (NASA/Ben Smegelsky)

That maneuver volition nonstop the spacecraft connected a four-day travel astir the acold broadside of the Moon, tracing a figure-eight way that carries the unit much than 230,000 miles from Earth and thousands of miles beyond the lunar aboveground astatine its farthest point.

Instead of firing engines to instrumentality home, Orion volition travel a fuel-efficient free-return way that uses Earth and Moon gravity to usher the spacecraft backmost toward Earth during the astir four-day instrumentality trip.

The ngo volition extremity with a high-speed reentry and splashdown successful the Pacific Ocean disconnected the seashore of San Diego, wherever NASA and Department of War teams volition retrieve the crew.

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Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I ngo and volition service arsenic a captious trial of NASA’s deep-space systems earlier astronauts effort a lunar landing connected a aboriginal flight.

NASA says the ngo is simply a cardinal measurement toward semipermanent lunar exploration and eventual crewed missions to Mars.