NASA’s Artemis II flight, which is set to carry four astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, successfully launched on Wednesday evening.
The Artemis II mission, part of NASA’s Artemis program that aims to return humans to the Moon as early as 2028, will bring four astronauts into orbit around the Moon on the first crewed flight of a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The astronauts, Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, will travel aboard the Orion crew capsule, and the entire mission is expected to be a 10-day trip. The mission was delayed in February due to a helium supply issue.
NASA recently pushed back its Moon landing plans, shifting the planned 2027 Artemis III mission from a Moon landing to a test flight. Instead, the Artemis IV mission, scheduled for 2028, is the next planned attempt to land on the Moon. NASA last landed on the Moon during the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. Artemis I, an unmanned mission where the SLS launches the Orion capsule around the Moon, due in 2022.
As I’m writing this, NASA is livestreaming the Artemis II launch on Twitch and YouTube and live-blogging about it on NASA’s website, if you want to follow along.
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