The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration successfully launched its Artemis 2 manned mission to the moon from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Wednesday evening local time. The flight should take ten days.
The Space Launch System (SLS) superheavy rocket launched the Orion spacecraft into Earth orbit, from where it will later launch to the Moon. As part of the Artemis 2 mission, the spacecraft will make one orbit around the Moon.
NASA astronauts are on board Orion Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot) a Christina Kochová (flight specialist) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen (flight specialist). “We see a beautiful moon rising, we’re flying right at it,” Wiseman said from the cockpit five minutes after takeoff.
On Friday, NASA released images taken by Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman from the window of the Orion spacecraft. You can find breathtaking pictures in the photo gallery.
The aim of the Artemis 2 mission is to fly around the moon after the so-called free return path. The Orion spacecraft will not reach its orbit, but will fly over the celestial body on the far side at an altitude of about 7,000 kilometers and, under the influence of gravity, will go on the return journey. The crew members will have about three hours at their closest approach to observe the moon, while being out of touch with Earth for a period of time.
For the mission to be successful, the Orion spacecraft must have enough sunlight for its solar panels throughout the flight and must not be in the moon’s shadow for more than 90 minutes. This is a key test before landing humans on the moon as part of the Artemis 3 mission. The last time people were there was in December 1972 during the American Apollo 17 mission. NASA originally planned to launch the Artemis 2 mission in early February, then in March. These dates were canceled after technical problems during the pre-launch tests.
