Moon, here we come: NASA inches closer to lunar return with Artemis II mission
Hundreds of NASA employees and contractors are working the three-day holiday weekend in an effort to attempt something that hasn’t happened since December 1972: sending astronauts to the moon.
Final preparations to transport the Artemis II mission stack, comprised of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft, to Launch Pad 39B are underway. Once the go-ahead is given, the 11 million pound stack, secured to NASA’s huge crawler-transporter — its second iteration to be precise — will roll out from the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building.
The stack was built in the Vehicle Assembly Building over a period of months, checked out and is scheduled to make the 12-hour-long journey to the launch pad at a speed of 1 mph. The rollout is scheduled to commence Saturday at 7 a.m.
The transporter-crawler will keep the stack perfectly level as it ascends an incline to the launch pad, where it’ll deposit the stack and its launching platform. It’s after that point officials will begin the lengthy but necessary process of checking the hardware, software and thousands of other items on the stack, launch control center and supporting elements of the Artemis II mission.
The four members of the Artemis II crew have been in extensive and lengthy training for their 10-day lunar flyby mission. They will be the first humans to be in proximity to the moon since the three NASA astronauts who made up the Apollo 17 crew in December 1972.
Astronaut Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, who is popularly known for being the only scientist to walk on the moon to date, spent three days on the lunar surface while their crewmate Ron Evans orbited overhead in the Apollo Command Module.
Society has learned a lot about Earth’s lunar satellite since the Apollo program ended with Apollo 17.
A myriad uncrewed lunar missions have been carried out by numerous nations since Apollo 17, with probes having orbited, landed and, in several instances, crashed. More crewed and robotic missions are in the works by India, China, Europe, Russia and NASA.
Currently scheduled for 2029, Artemis III will be NASA’s crewed landing attempt at the lunar South Pole. China has scheduled its own crewed lunar landing for 2030.
But, with Artemis II, it will be human eyes and Nikon Z5 cameras and lenses observing and photographing humankind’s return to the moon.
While the Artemis II crew won’t land on the moon, they will conduct a flyby with the hopes of seeing the far side of the moon in full phase.
Breaking down the mission objectives
In a forthcoming article, expect a detailed breakdown of what officials are trying to accomplish on the scientific front.
I visited Goddard Space Flight Center recently and interviewed the lunar scientist responsible for establishing the science parameters of the mission.
If all goes well, I will witness the rollout of the stack and attend a news conference that will feature new NASA Administrator Jared Issacman and the four Artemis II crew members — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as astronaut Jeremy Hansen, of the Canadian Space Agency.
You can livestream this weekend’s events online.
The current launch window dates for February, March and April can be viewed here.
As always, the scheduled date for each evolution can change very quickly.
Stay tuned to WTOP for ongoing coverage of Artemis II.
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