The Artemis era well and truly began Friday evening when a gleaming spacecraft that had traveled 700,000 miles around the moon carrying four astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
For NASA, for its international partners, and for all of humanity, the successful completion of the Artemis II mission marked the return of our species to deep space after more than half a century.
This was a spectacular achievement, and NASA deserves credit for making something that was very difficult look relatively easy. But it also raises an important question: What happens next?
NASA recently revised its mission plans for Artemis III and IV to provide a critical mission before they begin landing humans on the Moon. Much, much more work is needed to make those flights possible. And to be perfectly frank, the Artemis II mission that concluded Friday was the lowest hanging fruit of the Artemis program.
“The work ahead is bigger than the work behind us,” NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said after the landing Friday night.
What comes next involves more complex operations, requiring multiple vehicles, and ultimately going to another planetary body. To reach its objectives, NASA must take the training wheels off. So then, here are the key elements that must come together to land humans on the Moon.
space launch system
Several NASA officials praised the Space Launch System rocket’s performance during the Artemis II launch on April 1, saying it hit the target orbit for the mission with more than 99 percent accuracy.
The Artemis III mission core stage is expected to leave the factory in Michoud, Louisiana, for delivery to Kennedy Space Center in Florida later this month. Other rocket elements have already arrived, or will arrive soon.
Meanwhile, the mobile launch tower suffered moderate damage, and it will soon be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida for renovation and then stacking operations for the next mission.
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