A massive orange-and-white rocket built to enable the US to make repeated missions to the Moon in the coming years.
WASHINGTON: More than 50 years after the final crewed mission of the Apollo program, four astronauts are preparing for a historic journey that could mark a new chapter in US space exploration.
The long-delayed Artemis II mission by NASA is scheduled to launch from Florida as early as April 1, heading toward the Moon.
Although the crew will not land, they will conduct a flyby mission similar to Apollo 8, which orbited the Moon in 1968.
The roughly 10-day mission will be carried out by American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The mission will mark several historic firsts, including the first time a woman, a person of colour, and a non-American travel on a lunar mission.
It is also the first crewed flight of NASA’s new lunar rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS).
The massive orange-and-white rocket is built to enable the United States to return to the Moon repeatedly in the coming years, with the long-term goal of establishing a permanent base that could serve as a springboard for further exploration.
“We’re going back to the Moon because it’s the next step in our journey to Mars,” said Reid Wiseman, commander of Artemis II, during a NASA podcast.
Space Race 2.0?
The Artemis program—named after Apollo’s twin goddess—aims to test the technologies needed to eventually send humans to Mars, a far more distant goal.
This ambition comes with enormous challenges, intensified by the race to reach milestones before China. Beijing aims to land humans on the Moon by 2030, focusing on the lunar South Pole, which is believed to be rich in natural resources.
The rivalry evokes memories of the 1960s Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union. However, Matthew Hersch told AFP that the original race was “unique” and unlikely to be repeated. “The Chinese are not really competing with anyone but themselves,” he said.
Unlike the Cold War era, Washington’s investment in lunar exploration today is far smaller, though technological advances are substantial. “The computer technology supporting the Artemis II crew would have been almost unimaginable to the Apollo 8 crew, who flew in a spacecraft with electronics comparable to a high-end toaster oven,” Hersch noted.
Even so, NASA acknowledges that Artemis II carries significant risks. The crew will board a spacecraft that has never before carried humans or traveled to the Moon—more than 384,000 kilometres (238,855 miles) from Earth, roughly 1,000 times the distance to the International Space Station.
“We don’t accept anything less than perfect, because anything less increases the risk,” Peggy Whitson told AFP.
“That standard is critical for success,” she added. “We must live with the reality—based on our spaceflight history—that when accidents happen, people can die.”
To minimise risks and avoid disaster, the crew will perform a series of checks and manoeuvres while still near Earth. If everything goes smoothly, they will continue on toward the Moon.
Ambitious Timeline
The mission’s primary goal is to verify that both the rocket and spacecraft are functioning properly, setting the stage for a potential Moon landing in 2028. That year coincides with the final term of former President Donald Trump, a target that has drawn scrutiny from experts, partly because the timeline depends heavily on private-sector technological progress.
Astronauts will also need a lunar lander—still under development by rival billionaire-backed companies led by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos—to descend to the Moon’s surface.
The Artemis program has faced repeated delays and soaring costs, yet NASA hopes Artemis II can capture the rare sense of unity and hope once inspired by Apollo 8.
Nearly 60 years ago, on Christmas Eve 1968, the Apollo 8 crew—Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders—orbited the Moon and shared the now-iconic “Earthrise” photograph, reaching approximately one billion viewers worldwide. Their mission was credited with “saving 1968” amid global turmoil.
Today, with the country again facing deep divisions and uncertainty, the Artemis II crew has the opportunity to inspire a new generation.
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