The launch took place from Cape Canaveral in Florida on the Space Launch System rocket, carrying four astronauts on board. The crew includes NASA representatives: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. During their expedition, they are expected to orbit the Moon, allowing them to reach new heights in space travel. “This is Jeremy, we are setting off for the sake of all humanity,” Hansen said before the launch.
“Reid, Victor, Christina, and Jeremy, you carry with you the spirit of the Artemis team, the hopes and dreams of a new generation,” noted launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, wishing them good luck. “Go, Artemis-2!” she added.
Soon after the launch, as the crew began to ascend into the upper layers of the atmosphere, Commander Wiseman reported: “Beautiful view! We have a magnificent sunrise of the Moon.”
This mission is the result of nearly three years of preparation and the first under NASA's Artemis program. This program, which started in 2017, aims to establish a long-term U.S. presence on the Moon over the next ten years and beyond. The launch of Artemis-2 was a long-awaited event that the space agency had been preparing for over ten years. Major contractors, such as Boeing and Northrop Grumman, confirmed the operability of their systems that ensure the safe transport of people into space.
The Orion spacecraft, developed for NASA by Lockheed Martin, will detach from the SLS rocket 3.5 hours after launch. After that, the crew will begin testing maneuverability and perform the first of the planned tasks.
The Artemis-2 mission is a significant milestone in the American lunar program, aiming for the first human landing on the Moon in 2028 as part of the Artemis-4 mission. This landing will be the first since the last Apollo mission in 1972, while China is also actively developing its lunar program, planning to send astronauts to the Moon in 2030.
During the execution of Artemis-2, the astronauts will reach a maximum distance of 406,000 kilometers from Earth, marking the farthest flight ever undertaken by humans. The previous record belongs to the crew of the Apollo 13 mission, which in 1970 faced technical problems and failed to land on the Moon.
In 2022, NASA conducted the first unmanned Artemis mission, sending Orion on a similar route around the Moon. The Artemis-2 mission will be a more serious test for Orion and the SLS rocket, the development cost of which has increased from $2 billion to $4 billion per launch since 2010.
Meanwhile, companies SpaceX and Blue Origin continue to compete in the development of landing modules to transport astronauts to the lunar surface.
