NASA gave the four Artemis astronauts circling Earth the green light on Thursday to head for the Moon and carry out the first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years.
The enormous orange-and-white Space Launch System (SLS) rocket carrying the Orion capsule blasted off flawlessly from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday for the long-anticipated journey around the Moon.
“Artemis II astronauts are doing great,” NASA chief Jared Isaacman said in a post on X. “The Orion spacecraft is performing well in an impressive elliptical orbit.”
Orion is to loop around the Moon as part of the 10-day Artemis 2 mission aimed at paving the way for a Moon landing in 2028.
‘Great Spirits’
Before their rest period, the astronauts performed various checks to ensure the reliability and safety of a spacecraft that has never carried humans before.
Among the problems they identified was a “controller issue with the toilet when they spun it up,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator.
Isaacman, the NASA chief, said a communications problem had been resolved and the astronauts were “in great spirits.”
The mission marks a series of historic accomplishments: sending the first person of color, the first woman and the first non-American on a lunar mission.
If all proceeds smoothly, the astronauts will set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before — more than 250,000 miles.
It is also the inaugural crewed flight of SLS, NASA’s new lunar rocket.
SLS is designed to allow the United States to repeatedly return to the Moon with the goal of establishing a permanent base that will offer a platform for further exploration.
It was meant to take off as early as February after years of delays and massive cost overruns.
But repeated setbacks stalled it and even necessitated rolling the rocket back to its hangar for repairs.
Compete With China
The current era of American lunar investment has frequently been portrayed as an effort to compete with China, which aims to land humans on the Moon by 2030.
During a post-launch briefing, Isaacman said competition was “a great way to mobilize the resources of a nation.”
“Competition can be a good thing,” he said. “And we certainly have competition now.”
The Artemis program has come under pressure from Trump, who has pushed its pace with the hope that boots will hit the lunar surface before his second term ends in early 2029.
But the projected date of 2028 for a landing has raised eyebrows among some experts, in part because Washington is relying heavily on the private sector’s technological headway.
AFP
