The Artemis II mission is the first lunar venture in over 50 years, and San Diego actually plays a big role in the mission.
“I think it’s marvelous that the United States is reawakening its curiosity, because we so need it. I mean, you have to use science to advance the culture,” Dolores Johnson, a Raleigh resident visiting San Diego, said.
At the San Diego Air & Space Museum on Wednesdays, attendees told CBS 8 they were excited about what this mission means for inspiring the next generation of astronauts.
“For many decades, we didn’t have a lot of people going to the moon or thinking about Mars actively… Now that we have this sort of excitement, kids can get excited about it,” Jordan Ackerman, a San Francisco resident visiting the museum, said.
The Artemis II mission could travel farther from Earth than any human ever has, breaking the Apollo program’s distance record.
But the venture won’t be deemed a victory until the astronauts splash down in San Diego after their 10-day mission.
“San Diego becomes front and center with all the Artemis missions moving forward, including if this one goes according to plan, and they do go all the way to the moon, for the full 10-day mission, that they will splash down off of our coast, and specially trained teams from the Navy and from NASA will go out and collect the spacecraft and bring it back here to San Diego,” David Neville, the Communications Director for the San Diego Air & Space Museum, said.
Neville told CBS 8 the museum has plans to celebrate the splashdown by hosting a watch party next Friday. The event will feature hands-on activities for kids.
“This gives us an opportunity to celebrate not only San Diego’s ties to the space program, but to celebrate the entire Artemis program,” Neville said.