Khaberni - The American space agency «NASA» is preparing to launch the most powerful rocket ever made, in a historic mission aiming to send astronauts on a journey around the moon and back to Earth, for the first time in more than 50 years.
The «Artemis 2» mission is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida no later than February 6th, where the crew will travel about 685,000 miles round trip, lasting about ten days, and ending with the spacecraft landing in the Pacific Ocean waters.
The second test of the Space Launch System SLS
This trip represents the second test of the Space Launch System (SLS), and the first carrying a human crew. Four astronauts will live inside the «Orion» capsule, where they will test life support systems and communications, in addition to performing docking maneuvers in space.
Jared Isaacman, the billionaire and private astronaut who was sworn in as NASA's Administrator last December, said that the mission is «one of the most important manned spaceflights in the past half-century».
The first woman and the first black man
The mission crew includes three NASA astronauts: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, plus Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who is participating in his first spaceflight. Koch will become the first woman, and Glover the first person of color, to travel beyond low Earth orbit.
Although the mission does not include landing on the moon's surface or entering its orbit, the crew will be the first to orbit the moon since the «Apollo 17» mission in 1972.
«Artemis 2» follows a 2022 unmanned test flight and paves the way for the «Artemis 3» mission, aimed at landing astronauts near the Moon's south pole as soon as next year.
John Hanick, head of the «Artemis 2» mission management team, said during a press conference: «These are the days we live for. We are making history».
A step toward the bigger dream
Former head of the UK Space Agency, David Parker, described the mission as «a step towards the bigger dream of sustainable human and robotic exploration of the Moon, and then moving on to Mars».
Some observers believe the return to the Moon represents a new space race, in light of competition with China, which has announced its intention to send astronauts to the moon by 2030. In this context, Sean Davy, former Interim Director of NASA, said: «We will not allow China to beat America to the Moon... we will win».
The «SLS» rocket with the «Orion» capsule is about 100 meters tall, carries liquid fuel sufficient to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and achieves thrust speeds of up to 24,500 miles per hour, allowing it to reach the moon.
Before launch, the rocket will be transported from the assembly building to the launch pad, a four-mile journey that can take up to 12 hours, using a giant tracked transporter weighing thousands of tons.
Precise tests
The spacecraft will undergo a series of precise tests, including being filled with over 700,000 gallons of fuel and undergoing a countdown test. If significant technical issues arise, the rocket may be returned to the assembly building for necessary repairs.
NASA officials emphasized that crew safety remains «the utmost priority», noting that there are 14 backup launch dates in case the primary date is postponed due to weather or technical issues.
After lift-off, the crew will orbit the Earth twice before detaching from the rocket's upper stage, then manually pilot the capsule in a test maneuver simulating future moon orbit docking missions, before the European Service Module propels the spacecraft towards the moon, orbiting its far side before returning to Earth in a figure-eight trajectory.
During the journey, astronauts will conduct emergency drills and test a radiation shelter designed to protect them from solar storms.
More than five decades after the last human mission to the moon, excitement – and perhaps some anxiety – returns to the world of space exploration, and Parker accurately sums up the scene by saying: «Every rocket launch is a moment of tension, but I am confident that NASA will not launch until it is completely ready».
