The last time a human has traveled beyond low Earth orbit came aboard the final Apollo mission over 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s been eight years since NASA debuted Artemis, the U.S. space agency\u2019s program aiming to lift astronauts not only beyond the confines of LEO but back to the surface of the moon.<\/p>\n
This week, NASA announced plans to take the next critical step toward that goal with a crewed space flight that could launch early next year, aiming to travel the 250,000 miles to Earth\u2019s sole satellite, and a bit beyond, in a precursor lunar fly-by mission ahead of a hoped-for moon landing in 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe agency has made a commitment to launch no later than April of 2026 and we intend to keep that commitment,\u201d Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA\u2019s acting deputy associate administrator, said at a Tuesday press conference. \u201cWe\u2019re also, though, working to accelerate, as much as we can, in terms of the preparations and the operations, to potentially as early as February.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four astronauts, commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, are slated to fly the 10-day Artemis II mission, launching from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Orion capsule powered by the massive SLS rocket system. The crew\u2019s flight will take them on a path arcing about 5,000 miles past the moon before returning to Earth for a planned splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.<\/p>\n
Next year\u2019s planned journey follows 2022\u2019s Artemis I mission, a $4.1 billion effort which saw a successful 25-day unmanned flight that tested out the SLS rocket\/Orion capsule package. That mission took the Orion spacecraft, carrying three dummies outfitted in spacesuits and monitoring gear, within 81 miles of the lunar surface before eventually traveling some 40,000 miles past the moon before returning to Earth.<\/p>\n
If the Artemis II mission goes to plan, NASA intends to launch the SLS\/Orion package on a mission in 2027 that will include a landing on the moon\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n
A space race redux?<\/p>\n
Hawkins said, however, that NASA\u2019s bigger goal extends far beyond just revisiting the success of the Apollo program in putting astronauts on the lunar surface amid a global space race that\u2019s reminiscent of the rush toward space exploration in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we are returning to the moon and yes we are moving in accelerated fashion to get to the surface of the moon. But what\u2019s different is we are going back to the moon to establish a sustained presence on the moon … and demonstrating long-term capabilities on the surface of the moon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are demonstrating those capabilities so that we can go on to the next decision. We\u2019ve got our eyes set further, deeper into space onto Mars and being able to show we can establish a presence on Mars and further destinations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawkins also noted President Donald Trump\u2019s administration is backing the freshly accelerated Artemis program schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message has been clear to us that this administration asks us to acknowledge that we are indeed in … what people have commonly called a second space race,\u201d Hawkins said. \u201cThere is a desire for us to return to the surface of the moon and for us to be the first to return to the surface of the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why should we return to the moon?<\/p>\n
In a posting on the Artemis missions\u2019 website<\/a>, NASA lists a few reasons why it\u2019s once again devoting billions of dollars to making moon landings a priority.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going back to the moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits and inspiration for a new generation of explorers: the Artemis Generation,\u201d NASA says. \u201cWhile maintaining American leadership in exploration, we will build a global alliance and explore deep space for the benefit of all.\u201d<\/p>\n While a return to the moon smacks a little of \u201cbeen there, done that,\u201d NASA says it\u2019s committed to accomplishing some other first benchmarks as part of the series of Artemis missions, including extending manned exploration deeper into the solar system.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon<\/a>, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before,\u201d NASA says in a web posting. \u201cWe will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish the first long-term presence on the moon. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n SLS fun facts and a Utah connection<\/p>\n NASA says its SLS launch system stands at 322 feet high \u2014 taller than the Statue of Liberty \u2014 and weighs 5.75 million pounds when loaded with fuel.<\/p>\n During launch and ascent, the SLS produces 8.8 million pounds of maximum thrust, 15% more thrust than the Saturn V rockets that propelled Apollo astronauts to the moon.<\/p>\n Utah-based aerospace companies and experts have long played a role in NASA space missions, and the Artemis program is no exception. The massive solid fuel booster rockets that provide some 75% of the SLS initial thrust were developed and tested in Utah by Northrop Grumman in partnership with NASA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time a human has traveled beyond low Earth orbit came aboard the final Apollo mission over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[37816,6282,37812,37813,13805,37815,37810,3323,111,139,69,37814,147,37817,37811,15157],"class_list":["post-42233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-apollo-mission","tag-artemis","tag-christina-koch","tag-jeremy-hansen","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-lakiesha-hawkins","tag-lunar-surface","tag-nasa","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reid-wiseman","tag-science","tag-sls","tag-surface-of-the-moon","tag-victor-glover"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}