Photo: NASA/
If all the pieces fall into place, November of 2024 will see the true start of humanity's second Moon exploration program. It is then when the Artemis II mission, the first one with people on board, will depart our planet, proving everything NASA and its partners have been working for over the past few years has been worth it.
To make sure all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, armies of actual rocket engineers are working behind the scenes to put together the complicated hardware that will transport the first humans of Artemis around the Moon, while keeping them alive and bringing them back safely.
The latest milestone reached by these crews involves the joining of the Orion crew and service modules. That would be the actual habitat for the astronauts, and the system that will provide power and propulsion for the spacecraft.
The landmark was reached on October 19, but was just announced by NASA this week. Work was conducted at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Now that the two major components of the Orion are together, a series of power-on tests will be conducted. If all goes according to plan, altitude chamber testing will begin – that's meant to simulate the conditions the spacecraft will encounter in space.
For now, the launch of Artemis II is scheduled to take place in November of next year. Four people will climb on board, including the first person of color and the first woman to take part in a Moon mission.
Artemis II is scheduled to last up to ten days – the first two will be spent in orbit around our home world, the following four en route to the Moon, and another four to come back.
The flight will go down in history as the one that facilitated the voyage of human beings to the farthest point from Earth to date. Although these guys (and gal) won't actually set foot on the Moon, they will reach a point that's 6,400 miles (10,300 km) beyond the Moon, or a total of 230,000 miles (370,000 km) from our planet.
If everything checks out, the Artemis II mission will open the doors to the flight that will actually put human boots, once again, on the lunar surface. As it stands, Artemis III is scheduled to leave Earth around 2025, but for that to happen it will also need a piece of equipment other than the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket: a lander.
NASA tasked Elon Musk's SpaceX with making this thing. It will be called Starship Human Landing System (HLS), and it status at the time of writing is not known.
The latest milestone reached by these crews involves the joining of the Orion crew and service modules. That would be the actual habitat for the astronauts, and the system that will provide power and propulsion for the spacecraft.
The landmark was reached on October 19, but was just announced by NASA this week. Work was conducted at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Now that the two major components of the Orion are together, a series of power-on tests will be conducted. If all goes according to plan, altitude chamber testing will begin – that's meant to simulate the conditions the spacecraft will encounter in space.
For now, the launch of Artemis II is scheduled to take place in November of next year. Four people will climb on board, including the first person of color and the first woman to take part in a Moon mission.
Artemis II is scheduled to last up to ten days – the first two will be spent in orbit around our home world, the following four en route to the Moon, and another four to come back.
The flight will go down in history as the one that facilitated the voyage of human beings to the farthest point from Earth to date. Although these guys (and gal) won't actually set foot on the Moon, they will reach a point that's 6,400 miles (10,300 km) beyond the Moon, or a total of 230,000 miles (370,000 km) from our planet.
If everything checks out, the Artemis II mission will open the doors to the flight that will actually put human boots, once again, on the lunar surface. As it stands, Artemis III is scheduled to leave Earth around 2025, but for that to happen it will also need a piece of equipment other than the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System rocket: a lander.
NASA tasked Elon Musk's SpaceX with making this thing. It will be called Starship Human Landing System (HLS), and it status at the time of writing is not known.
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