NASA is getting ready for its first lunar space flight mission since the Apollo missions over 50 years ago, with work underway to fuel the rocket that will blast astronauts into space within hours.
“The launch team at @NASAKennedy are GO to begin filling the Artemis II rocket with fuel,” NASA said Wednesday morning in a post on social media.
“Teams at @NASAKennedy have begun slowly filling the Artemis II rocket with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. This process begins slowly —and then picks up speed — in order to prevent the supercold propellants from damaging the system.”
Those fuelling efforts are now picking up speed, NASA said shortly after 9 a.m. eastern.
“The rocket is now more quickly filling with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen,” officials said. “When the core stage is completely full, it will contain 196,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen.”
Four crew members will take off Wednesday evening on the Orion spacecraft, with the earliest two-hour launch window for the Artemis II mission being targeted for no earlier than 6:24 p.m. eastern.
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NASA has stated that the weather forecast for launch day shows an 80 per cent chance of favourable weather conditions, with primary concerns being “cumulus clouds, ground winds, and solar weather.”
The 10-day mission is expected to take humans the farthest they’ve ever gone before in space.
According to NASA, Artemis II’s goal is to “prove Orion’s life support systems are ready to sustain crew on future missions and allow the crew to practice operations essential to the success of Artemis III and beyond.”
While the crew won’t be landing on the moon, they will be flying around it and travelling roughly 250,000 miles into space, just surpassing the previous record of 248,655 miles set by Apollo 13 in 1970. The spacecraft will also travel approximately 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the moon.
From the crew’s location, the moon will look about “the size of a basketball held at arm’s length.”
While still close to Earth, the crew will also be assessing the performance of the life support systems necessary to generate breathable air, alongside continuing to “evaluate the spacecraft’s systems, including practicing emergency procedures, testing the radiation shelter, taking part in science experiments, and making observations of the Moon from a closer vantage point than human eyes have had in more than 50 years.”
Jeff Spaulding, test director with the NASA Exploration Ground Systems program, said in a press conference Tuesday that the crew is in “great spirits” ahead of the launch.
“I think everyone’s pretty excited and understands the significance of this launch,” he said. “Our team has been working amazingly hard these past few weeks and months trying to get this vehicle ready to where it is.
“People are excited, and ready to go on this first chapter on our way back to the moon since the 1970s.”
NASA states that the Artemis missions “will allow astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and help build momentum for the first crewed missions to Mars.”
Artemis II is the second of four missions of the Artemis program. Artemis I was an uncrewed mission that launched on Nov. 19, 2022, and lasted 25 days and flew twice around the moon.
The uncrewed aircraft travelled approximately 1.4 million miles, providing the groundwork needed for Artemis II to take off.
Through the first two missions, NASA is aiming with Artemis III to launch crew in the Orion spacecraft “to test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and the private commercial spacecraft needed to land astronauts on the Moon.” The mission is set to take off in 2027.
Artemis IV, the final instalment of the mission, is set to mark humanity’s return to the lunar surface in early 2028.
Part of the crew of astronauts making the trip is Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen of London, Ont., who becomes the first Canadian and non-American on such a mission. He will serve as a mission specialist.
Hansen posted a video to his Instagram account Wednesday morning, providing a message for Canadians ahead of the launch.
“Canada, I am thinking of you, and I am hoping that all of you see your greatness reflected in this journey around the moon,” he said. “I’m just so proud of all of you.”
Jenni Gibbons of Calgary will serve as Hansen’s backup in the event he can’t fly. She has gone through years of the same training as those on the rocket and during the mission, Gibbons will serve as a voice link to space from Earth.
California native Victor Glover is the mission’s pilot, previously serving as the pilot of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station as part of Expedition 64.
Reid Wiseman has been assigned as the mission’s commander. He flew previously as a flight engineer on the International Station for Expedition 41 from May to November 2014, logging more than 165 days in space.
Christina Koch is serving as a mission specialist on the flight. She set a record for the longest single space flight by a woman, with 328 days in space, while also participating in the first-ever all-female spacewalks in 2019.
— with files from Global’s Aaron D’Andrea and The Associated Press.
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