NASA returns humans to deep space after over 50 years with February Artemis II Moon mission

NASA plans to return humans to deep space next month, targeting a Feb. 6 launch for Artemis II, a 10-day crewed mission that will carry astronauts around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

“We are going — again,” NASA said Tuesday in a post on X, saying the mission is set to depart no earlier than Feb. 6.

The first available launch period will run from Jan. 31 to Feb. 14, with launch opportunities on Feb. 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11.

If the launch is scrubbed, additional launch periods will open from Feb. 28 to March 13 and from March 27 to April 10. For the former, launch opportunities will be available on March 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11, and for the latter on April 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

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NASA’s new moon rocket lifts off from Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022. This launch is the first flight test of the Artemis program.  (John Raoux/AP Photo)

The mission is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket the agency has ever built.

Preparations are underway to begin moving the rocket to the launch pad no earlier than Jan. 17. The move involves a four-mile journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B aboard the crawler-transporter 2, a process expected to take up to 12 hours.

“We are moving closer to Artemis II, with rollout just around the corner,” Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, said. “We have important steps remaining on our path to launch and crew safety will remain our top priority at every turn, as we near humanity’s return to the Moon.”

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The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission (left to right): NASA astronauts Christina Hammock Koch, Reid Wiseman (seated), Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. (NASA)

The 322-foot rocket will send four astronauts beyond Earth orbit to test the Orion spacecraft in deep space for the first time with a crew aboard, marking a major milestone following the Apollo era, which last sent humans to the Moon in 1972.

The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, making Artemis II the first lunar mission to include a Canadian astronaut and the first to carry a woman beyond low Earth orbit.

After launch, the astronauts are expected to spend about two days near Earth checking Orion’s systems before firing the spacecraft’s European-built service module to begin the journey toward the Moon.

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A full moon was visible behind the Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 14, 2022. The first in an increasingly complex series of missions, Artemis I tested SLS and Orion as an integrated system prior to crewed flights to the Moon. (NASA/Ben Smegelsky)

That maneuver will send the spacecraft on a four-day trip around the far side of the Moon, tracing a figure-eight path that carries the crew more than 230,000 miles from Earth and thousands of miles beyond the lunar surface at its farthest point.

Instead of firing engines to return home, Orion will follow a fuel-efficient free-return path that uses Earth and Moon gravity to guide the spacecraft back toward Earth during the roughly four-day return trip.

The mission will end with a high-speed reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, where NASA and Department of War teams will recover the crew.

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Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I mission and will serve as a critical test of NASA’s deep-space systems before astronauts attempt a lunar landing on a future flight.

NASA says the mission is a key step toward long-term lunar exploration and eventual crewed missions to Mars.