NASA is preparing for Wednesday’s launch of Artemis II, a mission that will take them farther from Earth than any humans before them. The crew includes astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
If everything goes according to plan, liftoff is scheduled for 6:24 p.m. ET, with a two-hour launch window to account for any last-minute issues, including technical concerns or weather.
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The mission has several key objectives, according to Lakiesha Hawkins, acting deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.
Those include testing spacecraft systems and life-support capabilities in a crewed environment, assessing astronauts’ ability to maneuver the spacecraft, and conducting rendezvous and docking demonstrations to prepare for future lunar landings.
“It’s about a 10-day mission, and we are looking to open up the door to the age of Artemis,” Hawkins said.
Once in space, Hawkins said the spacecraft will need to achieve a stable Earth orbit 24 hours after launch. The spacecraft will then perform a burn using its propulsion system and the moon’s gravity for assistance.
As it travels behind the moon, Earth will briefly lose contact with the crew during a short communications blackout.
After a lunar “slingshot” maneuver, which uses the moon’s gravity to propel the spacecraft back toward Earth, NASA will position the capsule for splashdown off the California coast.
The last time NASA sent astronauts to the moon was Apollo 17 in 1972.