In 1968, NASA succeeded in sending 3 astronauts beyond Earth orbit. It was the first time in history that humans traveled to another celestial orb, the Moon, more than 200,000 miles distant. The 3 returned safely, marking a major triumph for the United States’ Apollo/Saturn program and setting the stage for a series of spectacular manned lunar landings that would conclude with the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Not since that time has a human-being traveled beyond low earth orbit.

Today, NASA is nearly ready to begin sending astronauts back to Moon. Assuming all goes well with final preparations, 4 astronauts will launch into deep space aboard an Orion capsule propelled by the Space Launch System in spring 2026. The mission is known as Artemis II.

The journey back to this point — restoring the capability to send humans beyond Earth’s orbit — has been a long and arduous one. Priorities for human spaceflight and exploration after the original moon missions were focused on developing humankind’s capabilities to travel to and reside in low earth orbit. Beginning in the mid-2000’s, as NASA’s Space Shuttle program neared its end and the International Space Station was fully realized, strategic perspectives returned to the prospect of human exploration of the Moon and Mars. While the return to lunar ambitions reflects some of the geopolitical motivations that birthed Apollo/Saturn, scientific discovery and the promise of commercial rewards propel the new push to the Moon.

Thanks to the ingenuity and persistence of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), and the foresight of advocates for government-inspired exploration of deep space, the Space Launch System (SLS) began to take shape in the 2010-2020 timeframe. The successor of the Saturn V program and a beneficiary of technologies developed for the Shuttle program, the SLS is the most powerful human-rated launch system yet devised and the only rocket presently able to place astronauts on a trajectory that will delivery them to lunar orbit. The SLS powered the Artemis I mission in the early 2020’s, demonstrating that it could safely launch an Orion space capsule and ESA propellant/service module into earth orbit. The Orion and its service module then traveled to the Moon and back.

Artemis II will deliver 4 astronauts in their Orion/ESA service module to a point thousands of miles past the Moon, well beyond the distance traveled by the Apollo lunar astronauts. These astronauts will then drop into lunar orbit and eventually return to Earth. It is the next step in a progression of missions that should get astronauts back to the surface of the Moon before 2030. The astronauts reaching the surface of the Moon will have the goal of detecting potential sources of water that could fuel spaceflights onward to Mars later in the century. In time, they will also experiment with ways to extract Helium-3 from the lunar surface, HE-3 being a potential fuel for fusion energy production on Earth.

The upcoming Artemis II mission is important not only because it returns humankind to the vicinity of the Moon. It is proof-positive that the United States continues to have the technological wherewithal and vision to open up new avenues of exploration along distant frontiers. It is also a rallying point and source of pride for Americans who share a common interest in the advancement of science and a belief that humanity’s potential for greatness extends well beyond the planet we call home.

Stay Tuned… more reports to follow as NASA prepares for its most daring, deep-space human spaceflight in 57 years!

[Photo credit: Artemis logo published by NASA]