NASA is preparing to send astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than half a century.
The rocket carrying the Orion capsule, which will perform a 10-day flight in orbit around the Moon, will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:24 tonight.
As part of the Artemis II mission, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman and Canadian Jeremy Hansen will travel around the Moon and return to Earth. This flight will be the first human journey beyond Earth orbit since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
THE FAREST DISTANCE JOURNEY IN HISTORY
Artemis II will also be recorded as humanity’s farthest space journey to date. The crew will travel 406,000 kilometers from Earth along the route around the Moon. This distance will also exceed the record set by the troubled Apollo 13 mission in 1970.
During the mission, the Orion capsule’s life support systems, communications infrastructure and flight controls will be extensively tested. Astronauts will also take over manual control of the spacecraft a few hours after liftoff and test its steering and maneuverability.
While it is stated that the weather conditions are largely suitable for the launch, in case of an unfavorable situation, NASA has the opportunity to conduct new tests every day until April 6. The mission was previously delayed due to technical problems and a hydrogen leak.
Artemis II is considered the first significant manned mission of NASA’s multibillion-dollar Artemis program, which aims for a long-term human presence at the Moon’s south pole. The agency aims to land astronauts on the Moon’s surface by 2028, and this goal is a strategic race that is expected to take place before China’s planned first manned Moon landing.
