NASA on track for a manned lunar mission

NASA gave a Tuesday update on the Artemis program. The ultimate goal is to put humans back on the moon for the first time since the historic Apollo missions. First there must be a manned mission around the moon, without landing. The Artemis 2 manned mission was scheduled to take place in November 2024 and NASA is sticking to that schedule for now.

The first Artemis mission ended in December with an unmanned Orion spacecraft returning safely to Earth after a more than 25-day test flight around the moon.

Anti-missile and heat shield

Orion was launched into lunar orbit atop the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, one of the most powerful rockets ever built. NASA CEO John Honeycutt said SLS performance was “excellent”. “It met all of our expectations and exceeded most of them,” Honeycutt said during a press event. NASA employees analyze more than 155 gigabytes of data from Orion.

Orion’s heat shield did not work as expected: more material was lost than expected. Still, NASA management is confident that everything will be ready for the crewed mission by November next year.

Artemis Missions

The Artemis II mission will take a crew of four around the moon. The eight-day mission will include testing of Orion’s crew interfaces and guidance and navigation systems.

In more than two years, the United States will start with the Artemis IIImission to put humans back on the moon. Astronauts last walked on the Moon in 1972.

There is also a Dutch touch in the Artemis flights: the spacecraft’s solar panels were manufactured in Leiden.