At 6:35 PM on Wednesday, April 1, Artemis II was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the first time the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had sent a rocket to do a flyby of the moon since 1972, more than fifty years ago. This mission holds great importance for the future of space travel.
The mission lasted ten days and sent the crew around the moon and Earth on a figure eight trajectory relying on Earth’s gravity to pull them back into what is called a free-return trajectory. This method has only been used once before, during the Apollo 13 mission, as the state of the rocket’s engines were uncertain after an explosion. The mission did not land on the moon, but it was used as a setup for future launches. The goal was to test the function of the Orion spacecraft in deep space before later missions send it to the moon.
This mission was historic as it sent humans the farthest from Earth people have ever been and captured photos of parts of the moon never directly seen before by the human eye. The astronauts on the flight made their own history as well. Christina Koch was the first woman to fly to the moon, Victor Glover was the first person of color to fly to the moon, and Jeremy Hansen was the first non-American to fly to the moon.
The team was also the first to bring cell phones into space. Each crew member was given an iPhone 17 before take off. Though the phones could not connect to Bluetooth or the internet, the primary goal was for the crew to have their own devices to capture photos and videos.
Artemis II was the second in a string of five missions with the primary goal of establishing a long-term base of operations on the moon. Artemis I, which launched in 2022, sent an uncrewed Orion spacecraft out into deep space in order to test its functions. As for Artemis III, IV, and V, they will continue to further this goal, with Artemis III testing lunar rovers made by commercial partners and Artemis IV and V actually landing on the moon in attempts to begin building a lunar base. NASA has said that their goal is to have this base set up by the late 2020s. Many people are skeptical that NASA will be able to accomplish these missions in the time frame currently established. Artemis II alone was delayed over a year from the original launch date, and many of the commercial partners like SpaceX and Blue Origin are having trouble completing their parts of the future missions.
The Artemis II crew finally landed on April 10 at 8:07 PM off the coast of San Diego making the mission an official success, involving a lot of firsts for science, inclusion, and exploration.
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