Just a few hours remain in the countdown for Artemis II, NASA's mission to return astronauts to lunar orbit for the first time since the Apollo era.
- The agency's new lunar hopes and dreams are sitting on pad 39B at Florida's Kennedy Space Center in the form of a 322-foot-tall rocket set to launch three Americans and one Canadian on a 10-day flyby of Earth's nearest celestial companion.
Why it matters: The mission — a crewed dress rehearsal for a lunar landing, like Apollo 8 and 10, decades ago — will set several space milestones.
- NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch will become the first person of color and woman, respectively, to travel beyond low Earth orbit
- Canada's Jeremy Hansen will become the first non-American to voyage beyond that mark.
What they're saying: NASA chief historian Brian Odom tells Axios' Derek Lacey: "I think this [mission] signals a picking up where we last left off."
- "There's still that 'shoulders of giants' mentality."
What we're watching: The two-hour launch window opens Wednesday at 6:24pm ET. (Watch live on NASA's YouTube channel.)
- If needed, the next window opens Thursday at 7:22pm ET. Space travel can be unpredictable, after all.
Case in point: The Artemis II "stack" — that's the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket plus the Orion spacecraft atop it — had to be rolled back into its hangar in late February to fix technical issues that prevented an earlier launch attempt.
- The SLS is a NASA-led Boeing/Northrop Grumman/United Launch Alliance/Aerojet Rocketdyne endeavor, while Orion is a Lockheed Martin/Airbus Defense and Space effort.
Between the lines: While no small feat, Artemis II is only a lunar flyby.
- NASA once planned a Moon landing with Artemis III, but recently rejiggered its schedule.
- Artemis III will now involve testing one or both of SpaceX and Blue Origin's lunar lander vehicles in low Earth orbit. A Moon landing is now targeted for Artemis IV in 2028.
What's next: NASA eventually hopes to return to the Moon annually, if not more often, with the ambitious goal of establishing a lunar base.
- But first: A quick visit to check out the cosmic neighborhood before getting into the real estate market.
