NASA’s plans to send humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years in 2026

NASA said it expects to send astronauts on a ten -day trip around the moon in February.

The US space agency had previously pledged to launch the mission by the end of April, but said it intends to anticipate the date.

Artemis II crew: on the left, Christina Koch; behind, Victor Glover (pilot); Ahead, Reid Wiseman (Commander); On the right, Jeremy Hansen/Photo: Reproduction

It’s been 50 years since a country has conducted a manned lunar mission. NASA will send four astronauts to pass at a distance of about 9,200 km from the moon and return to Earth as a system test.

The Artemis II Mission is the second launch of the Artemis program, whose objective is to bring astronauts to the moon and eventually establish a long term presence on the lunar surface.

Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA’s interim deputy deputy administrator, said this would be an important moment in human spatial exploration.

“Together we have a first row place to watch the story,” she said at a press conference.

“The launch window may open on February 5, but we want to emphasize that security is our main priority,” he added.

Artemis’s launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson explained that the powerful rocket system built to bring the astronauts to the moon, the space launch system (SLS), was “practically assembled and ready to leave.”

All that was left was to complete the crew capsule, called Orion, connected to the SLS, and complete the tests on soil.

The first Mission Artemis lasted 25 days and was launched by an unmanned spacecraft in November 2022. She saw a space ship travel around the moon and re -enter the earth’s atmosphere.

The mission was successfully completed, although there was problems with the thermal shield when the spacecraft reentry in the earth’s atmosphere. These problems have already been solved.

The launch of Artemis II will take four astronauts to a round trip trip lasting ten days. Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, from NASA, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian space agency will not land on the moon, but will be the first crew to travel beyond the low orbit of Earth since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Artemis II’s main flight director Jeff Radigan explained that the crew would fly further into space than anyone before.

“They will spend at least 5,000 nautical miles (9,200 km) beyond the moon, which is much further than previous missions,” he told reporters.

The purpose of the mission is to test the rocket and spacecraft systems to prepare the ground for a lunar landing.

Astronauts will enter the Orion capsule, which will be your home throughout the trip and will be positioned at the top of the SLS.

It will be initially transported to the earth’s orbit with the help of two solid rocket thrusters, who will fall back to the land two minutes after the launch, as they have fulfilled their function.

Eight minutes after the launch, the huge central stage will be separated from the second stage, called interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS), and the Orion crew capsule. Orion solar panels will unfold and start loading spacecraft batteries to provide energy when it is not in direct sunlight.

Ninety minutes later, the ICPS will trigger its engines to raise the vehicle to a higher land orbit and, within 25 hours, a complete verification of the systems will be performed.

If everything is in order, Orion will separate from ICPS and there will be a kind of “space ballet” between the two vehicles, more prosaically called the proximity operations demonstration.

Astronauts will manually control Orion’s maneuver propellant to approach and move away from ICPS. This will be used to rehearse coupling procedures in order to connect with a landing vehicle for the eventual landing on the moon.

Twenty -three hours later, Orion service module performs a translucent injection (TLI) – a boost that directs it to the moon – before Orion begins his four -day trip, bringing the astronauts over 370,000 kilometers from Earth.

During the trip, astronauts will continue to perform systems checks.

The crew will be, in a way, human guines.

Experiences will monitor how their bodies are affected by space. Scientists will cultivate astronaut blood tissue samples called organoids before and after the trip.

The two sets of organoids will be compared to see how the bodies of astronauts were affected by space, according to Nicky Fox, NASA’s head of science.

“You may be wondering why we are using the samples when we have real astronauts,” she told BBC News.

“We want to be able to study in depth the effect of microgravity and radiation in these samples. I will certainly not dissect an astronaut! But I can dissect these small samples of organoids and really observe the difference.”

After the spacecraft passes through the moon, the astronauts start their four -day trip home, attracted by the severity of the earth.

Upon arrival, the service module, which contains the main propulsion system of the spacecraft, will separate from the crew module. Astronauts then begin the most dangerous part of the mission by reentry in the earth’s atmosphere and jumping from parachutes on the California coast.

The success of the mission will determine how long NASA can launch Artemis III to actually land on the moon. But even if the mission is running without problems, the goal stated by the “not before mid -2027” space agency is unrealistic, according to Open University.

“‘Not before’ it’s a common expression in NASA, and it means just that. It’s the earliest possibility,” he said, adding that he considered it optimistic due to the cost of keeping Artemis III on track.

The arrival on the moon will require Elon Musk’s Spacex Space Nave, transport the astronauts from and to the surface, and we have seen in recent months that the ship itself has a long way to go before it can make an orbital flight around the earth, not to mention placing astronauts on board.