NASA begins assembly of Artemis II for "historic" manned launch to the Moon

Miami.- The Artemis II mission, which will take four astronauts this year on a "historic" flight around the Moon, will take a key step this Saturday with the transfer and assembly of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion capsule on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (USA). This is a complex logistical operation that can last up to 12 hours and will mark the return of a human crew beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since 1972. The transfer of the spacecraft this Saturday between the assembly building and the platform, at about 1.6 kilometers per hour over a stretch of 6.5 kilometers, represents one of the most delicate milestones in the pre-launch preparation, it was pointed out this Friday by NASA executives at a press conference.

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Sustained Human Presence on the Moon

Artemis II represents a "historic moment" for the agency, the lunar program, and future crewed missions to Mars, assured Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA.

"For us, this feels very different: putting a crew in the rocket and taking it around the Moon. This will be our first step towards a sustained human presence on the Moon," he stated. Agency executives also emphasized that they are maintaining the launch window starting February 6th, which is "feasible," when answering press questions about the coincidence with the launch in the same month of the Crew-12 mission, by SpaceX, which will take four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

This window extends until April and, in case the launch doesn't materialize due to technical issues, the Artemis launch director, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, indicated that there are "opportunities practically every month".

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Artemis II will be a new milestone since 1972

This first manned mission -lasting ten days- of the Artemis program will consist of a flight around the Moon without landing, following a trajectory known as "free return", which will allow the Orion spacecraft to orbit the natural satellite and return to Earth using lunar gravity. Artemis II, which will validate Orion's propulsion, navigation, communications, and life support systems, will be the closest human approach to the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission of 1972. Your success will be critical to advancing to Artemis III, which plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface. Jacob Bleacher, chief scientist for exploration at NASA, also pointed out that the mission could offer a "unique opportunity" to observe the far side of the Moon, a region that humans have not been able to see directly from Earth.

The most powerful rocket of NASA

The SLS, the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA in partnership with Boeing and Northrop Grumman, is about 98 meters tall, weighs more than 2.6 million kilograms fully loaded, and is specially designed to transport the Orion spacecraft on manned missions to deep space, such as Artemis II.

Unlike SpaceX's Starship rocket, which is about 120 meters tall and is still in development and testing phases, the SLS has already successfully completed an unmanned lunar flight during the Artemis I mission in 2022.

The Orion Capsule: Home of the Crew

The Orion spacecraft, with a diameter of about five meters and an approximate weight of 26 tons, is equipped with advanced life support systems, radiation protection, deep space communications, and a heat shield designed to withstand the intense heat of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere at speeds exceeding those of low-Earth orbit missions. Orion will be home to four astronauts from the United States and Canada, including a woman, during the 10 days of the mission.
From NASA, Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch will fly. Completing the team is Jeremy Hansen, an astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), who will become the first from his country to travel around the Moon.

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Wiseman and Glover have previously served as commanders and pilots on the ISS, while Koch holds the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, with 328 days.