Artemis II launches, the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years

BarcelonaNASA's Artemis II mission rocket blasted off at 0:35 this morning, Catalan time, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A historic mission that aims to take humans back to the Moon after more than 50 years successfully begins. The objective in this case is not to land on the Moon but to orbit it and return to Earth, to test the technology that will finally allow a lunar landing in the year 2028.

But the Artemis II astronauts will also make history, as they are expected to become the human beings to fly farthest from Earth, surpassing the record currently held by the Apollo missions. Furthermore, for the first time in history, a woman and a Black man will also leave Earth's orbit. They will be specialist Christina Koch, who already holds the record for the woman who has spent the most consecutive days in space (328 days on the International Space Station), and the mission pilot, Victor Glover. The captain of Artemis II is American Reid Wiseman, and completing the team is specialist Jeremy Hansen, the only astronaut on the mission who is not from NASA but from the Canadian Space Agency, and who will also be the first Canadian to leave Earth's orbit.

Propelled by NASA's SLS rocket, the most powerful currently in existence, Artemis II took off about ten minutes later than scheduled due to minor issues with the mission abort system. The Orion capsule detached from the boosters, and eight minutes after liftoff, it successfully left Earth's gravity. The crew, from the capsule they have named Integrity, confirmed that everything was fine, and the crowd gathered at Cape Canaveral erupted in applause.

About three hours after liftoff, the Orion spacecraft is expected to perform maneuvers to test the crew's ability to pilot it manually. After orbiting the Earth, on the second day of the mission, Artemis II will set course for the Moon, and upon arrival, about four days later, it will orbit the satellite, flying over its far side, at a distance of between 6,500 km and 9,000 km from the lunar surface. There, they will momentarily lose contact with Earth, for between 30 and 50 minutes, as the Moon will block the connection. After about three hours of observation, they will use the Moon's gravitational force to gain momentum for the return to Earth, a journey that will take about four more days.

For the first time, astronauts are also bringing their own mobile phones to take pictures, which NASA will share on social media.

The Artemis II mission will last ten days in total and will serve to test the Orion spacecraft, with a capsule prepared to provide life support to the crew for 21 days, as well as other operating systems that NASA hopes will allow a landing on the Moon again in the year 2028, the last year of Donald Trump's term. It will be then, on the Artemis IV mission, when the first humans in more than 50 years - and probably the first woman in history - are expected to set foot on the Moon. The last to do so were the astronauts of the Apollo 17 mission in the year 1972.

The battle with China

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, congratulated the Artemis II crew on his Truth Social network shortly before takeoff: “We are winning, in space, on Earth and everywhere: economically, militarily and now, beyond the stars,” he stated.

The fact that the return to the Moon's surface has been scheduled for the last year of Donald Trump's term is not a coincidence. The President of the United States has set NASA's goal to "reach the Moon before China." The Asian giant plans to do so around 2030, although without as much fuss and media noise as NASA. And the new administrator of the United States space agency, Jared Isaacman, has set to work to ensure that this geopolitical milestone occurs before Trump leaves the White House.

After Artemis II, another crew will launch on Artemis III to test the docking system of the Orion spacecraft with the lunar landers. Although it was planned that this third mission would be the one to descend to the Moon's surface, NASA has preferred to take more time to test a technology that is very different from the one used in the Apollo missions. A technological effort in which, moreover, private companies such as Elon Musk's Space X and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin participate, preparing lunar landers for NASA.

Isaacman presented NASA's plans for the Moon just a week ago, when he revealed that the objective of the Artemis missions is to lay the groundwork for creating a permanent colony on the Moon. After the Artemis IV landing in early 2028, another is expected with Artemis V at the end of the same year, to pave the way for periodic landings that will allow the construction of a permanent lunar base on our satellite.