A NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule, will be the protagonists this Saturday, making a multi-hour journey from the agency’s Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The event marks the first steps on an unprecedented — and, for some, perhaps unexpected — trajectory.
The 10-day mission, called Artemis II, will launch on February 6, taking NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, close to the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The four-person crew will travel beyond the far side of the Moon, which could set a new record for the longest distance traveled by humans from Earth, currently held by Apollo 13.
The mission will also go down in history as the first trip beyond low Earth orbit carried out by a person of color, a woman and a Canadian astronaut.
But why won’t Artemis II land on the lunar surface?
“The short answer is because it doesn’t have the capability to do so. It’s not a lunar landing module,” said Patty Casas Horn, NASA’s deputy leader of Mission Analysis and Integrated Assessments.
“Throughout NASA’s history, everything we do has involved a certain amount of risk, and so we want to make sure that risk makes sense and accept only the risk that is necessary, within reasonable limits. So we develop a capability, we test it, we develop another capability, and we test it again. And we will get to land on the Moon, but the Artemis II program is really about the crew.”
Artemis I, the program’s inaugural 25-day unmanned mission, launched in November 2022 and orbited the Moon. The upcoming flight will be the first time people will be aboard the Artemis spacecraft: the Orion capsule will take astronauts around the Moon, and the SLS rocket will launch Orion into Earth orbit before the crew continues its journey into deep space.
“Now, with our four humans on board, we will test many new capabilities that did not exist on Artemis I,” Horn said. “For example, we need to maintain the thermal stability of the spacecraft, because humans need to be comfortable. But when you add people to a spacecraft, you also add a lot of moisture to the air. They also need food. They need water. They need bathrooms. We… also have some exercise devices on Orion this time that we will test.”
NASA’s priorities for Artemis II are clear, Horn added. And there’s plenty to do without touching the lunar surface. The safety and health of the crew comes first, which includes bringing the astronauts home. The safety and health of the ship are secondary, and mission objectives — such as testing navigation, propulsion and other onboard systems — come after that.
Similarities to Apollo 8
The profile of the Artemis II mission has some parallels with Apollo 8, launched in 1968 and which took humans close to the Moon for the first time. That mission also did not land on the lunar surface. However, it was the first manned launch of the Saturn V rocket and the first time astronauts were able to see and photograph the far side of the Moon.
Like Artemis II, Apollo 8 was launched at a time when the program’s lunar module — called the Apollo Lunar Module — was not ready for a manned flight. As a result, NASA changed the profile of the mission, moving from lunar landing training to translunar navigation training. (Lunar landing training ended up happening during Apollo 9.)
The first lunar lander planned for the Artemis program is called the Starship HLS, or Human Landing System, and is currently in development by SpaceX. During the Artemis III mission, scheduled to launch in 2028, astronauts will be launched aboard the Orion capsule, using the Space Launch System rocket.
Once in lunar orbit, Orion will dock with Starship’s Lunar Landing Module (HLS) and two astronauts will transfer to the lunar module for their journey to the surface. Notably, there are doubts about the development schedule for Starship’s lunar module, which led NASA to consider hiring another company for the work.
Horn acknowledged the similarities between Artemis II and Apollo 8, but also highlighted important differences.
“Apollo 8 went into lunar orbit, went around 10 times and then came home,” she said. “We’re not going into lunar orbit — Artemis II is a ‘free return,’ meaning that as soon as we leave Earth’s orbit, we’re already on our way home. We’re just going to orbit the Moon, and that’s the beauty of it. Any number of things can go wrong, and the crew will still get back to Earth without having to perform any other major ignition maneuvers,” he added, referring to the ignition of the spacecraft’s engines.
According to James W. Head, professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Brown University, who worked on the Apollo program, there may be another parallel between the two missions.
“The Apollo 8 mission happened at Christmas time, so everyone was at home watching it on TV. It gave people the feeling that we were really going to go to the Moon. It was an awakening for the country and the world,” he said. “Artemis II will be that same kind of awakening moment — we’re going back to the Moon. Here are these four brave astronauts making observations of the Moon and looking back at Earth after more than 50 years. It will be something new. With all the confusion going on on Earth today, this could even be a force to bring people together. There’s a greater purpose here. There’s something we all need to come together for.”
Head also believes that the Apollo and Artemis programs are linked by the rigorous approach of testing each component before the mission’s launch. “The Artemis spacecraft is only on its second flight. You can’t rush things,” he said. “Just like the Apollo program, each element is tested step by step. That’s why it’s not landing, because it’s the first time it’s being tested. So it makes perfect sense. That’s how NASA conducts its missions, to ensure not only human safety, but also the success of the mission.”
