Nasa's Artemis II to carry astronauts near Moon after five decades

The first crewed mission beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972 will send four astronauts around the Moon, testing systems critical for future lunar landings

Come February, for the first time since 1972, astronauts will venture into the lunar vicinity. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) on Saturday moved its towering SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, scheduled for blastoff as early as February 6, to the launch area from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building.

 

This first crew mission will include four astronauts (Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen) who will venture around the Moon before returning to Earth. Koch will become the first woman traveller to the lunar region, while Hansen will become the first non-US citizen to achieve this feat, representing the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The launch window will be until April.

 

 

Moreover, for the first time, there will be an Indian connection to a crewed Moon mission. Though no Indian-owned space company is in the Artemis prime contractor list, several Indian-born scientists were likely part of the mission at various stages. This includes Kavya K Manyapu from Hyderabad, who leads the development of exploration spacesuits for the Artemis program within the Flight Operations Directorate at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

 

The 10-day mission is expected to be a huge victory for the Donald Trump administration. The mission will validate critical life support and re-entry systems in deep space. “We’re making history,” Artemis II mission management team chair John Honeycutt told the media.

 

Christina Koch is an engineer who became an astronaut in 2013 and will serve as a mission specialist for Nasa’s Artemis II mission. She was living and working on the International Space Station (ISS) for almost all of 2019 in Expeditions 59, 60, and 61. Koch spent a total of 328 consecutive days in space and participated in the first all-female spacewalks.

 

Hansen is a Canadian astronaut and former fighter pilot, who also trained astronaut candidates in Nasa.

 

Wiseman, the commander of Nasa’s Artemis II mission, previously served as a flight engineer aboard the ISS for Expedition 41 from May through November of 2014. 

 

Glover, assigned to be the pilot of the mission, is a former US Navy pilot who was selected as an astronaut in 2013. 

 

The SLS (Space Launch System) is the only rocket capable of sending the Orion spacecraft, four astronauts, and large cargo directly to the Moon on a single launch. It is designed to be both powerful and flexible for crew, cargo, or science missions. Nasa’s prime contractors for SLS include Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies Company; Boeing; Northrop Grumman; and Teledyne Brown Engineering.

 

Several international space agencies are also making key contributions. This includes CSA, ESA (European Space Agency), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), among others.

 

According to a Nasa statement, its prime contractors Aerojet — Rocketdyne, Axiom Space, Bechtel, Blue Origin, Boeing, Amentum, Jacobs, Lockheed Martin, Maxar Space Systems, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX — currently have more than 2,700 suppliers across 47 states contributing to the lunar spaceport at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center.