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For 53 years, since the end of the Apollo program, humans have only felt the pull of the Earth's gravity.
That's expected to change in the coming weeks.
For the first time since December 1972, when Apollo 17 left the lunar surface, humans will instead feel the pull of the moon's gravity. NASA’s Artemis II mission plans to orbit the moon and take four astronauts farther from the Earth than humans have ever been before.
The Johnson Space Center in Houston will once again play a crucial role in the process as a team of flight directors in mission control will guide Artemis II from its launch in Florida to its splash down off the coast of California.
"The Johnson Space Center is crucial for any aspect of this particular mission," said David Alexander, director of Rice University's Space Institute. "The astronauts are all trained here. They all go through the training that they do to allow them to do all the tasks that they need to do flawlessly and to keep everything safe and working. That all happens at Johnson Space Center mission control, where they're actually controlling operations, testing out the systems, talking the astronauts through anything they need to talk to."
The Artemis II mission
The 10-day Artemis II mission is the first manned flight of the Artemis program, NASA's grand return to the moon.
Once it launches, the plan for Artemis II is to orbit the Earth twice. At that point, Artemis II will conduct what's called a trans-lunar burn, the propulsion of the spacecraft in a specific direction. That will set the Artemis II's spacecraft, Orion, on the path to orbit the moon and use the moon's gravity to launch it back to the Earth.
Orion will eventually orbit the moon one time, including flying across the dark side of the moon. That should result in about 40 minutes of radio silence between Orion and mission control.
Though NASA has flown to the far side of the moon before, Artemis II is expected to break the record for the farthest distance from Earth anyone has ever traveled, currently held by the Apollo 13 mission.
The Artemis II crew aims to observe the moon's features from a distance. From the astronauts' perspective, the moon should look about the size of a basketball, according to NASA. Afterward, the Orion is set to return to the Earth and splash down off the coast of San Diego.
Artemis II is tasked with five mission priorities from NASA, which can be roughly summarized as ensuring such a mission is possible. More specifically, the mission will outline whether or not the crew, systems and hardware can sustain the trip; ensuring emergency protocols work; and collecting data and information on space travel and the moon itself.
When will Artemis II shoot for the moon?
NASA is currently aiming for a March window to launch Artemis II. The administration had previously hoped to fly in February, but a dress rehearsal found a liquid hydrogen leak in one of the main rockets, forcing NASA to delay Artemis II’s launch.
Now, the earliest Artemis II will launch is March 6. NASA had previously identified several “launch windows” throughout the spring, based on when the Earth and moon would be aligned with each other for a successful mission. If Artemis II does not launch by March 11, the mission will be delayed to April.
Beyond that, NASA has also identified the launch windows to the minute of a potential launch. All of them are either in the evening (or, in the case of March 11, the very early morning hours). The launch window on March 6, for example, begins at 7:29 p.m. CST. The earliest-in-the-day launch would be on April 30, at 5:06 p.m. CDT.
Why Artemis II matters
No human — American or otherwise — has been to the moon since the end of the Apollo program more than half a century ago. For advocates of space exploration, revamping lunar missions puts the United States on a path toward exploring the so-called final frontier.
The Artemis program (named for Artemis, Apollo's twin sister in Greek mythology) aims to eventually establish a permanent lunar presence, including infrastructure, and charter a path for eventual manned missions to Mars.
At the same time, China is ramping up its own space exploration missions, including its own potential lunar launch, setting the stage for something of a 21st century space race.
Dozens of countries have signed on to the "Artemis Accords," a set of guiding principles among nations in an effort to promote intercontinental relations in space. Among its principles are peaceful exploration, transparency and interoperability.
Artemis missions have been repeatedly delayed. Artemis II had originally been scheduled to launch in late 2025 before being pushed back to this spring. Its successor, Artemis III, aims to land a crew on the moon. When the Artemis program was first announced, the goal was to have astronauts land on the moon by 2024, though now officials say it may not even happen by 2027.
Meet the astronauts heading to the moon
A four-person crew will board the Artemis II mission to the moon: commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
The mission will be one of historic firsts: Glover will be the first Black astronaut to reach the moon; Koch the first woman; and Hansen, a Canadian, the first non-American.
Wiseman had previously served as flight engineer on the International Space Station (ISS) for several months in 2014. During that time, he and his crew completed more than 300 scientific experiments. He also served as the chief of the astronaut office for two years. Wiseman is a Navy veteran and pilot of 27 years before joining the 20th NASA astronaut class in 2009.
"We see this beautiful hardware behind us, the SLS, the Orion," Wiseman said during a news conference in January, standing in front of the Artemis II rockets. "But for this crew, we’ve been on this journey for about two-and-a-half years. And we truly look at that and see teamwork. We see global cooperation. We see a strong nation leading the way."
Glover served as pilot for the SpaceX Crew-1 mission on the Dragon spacecraft, which traveled to the ISS. He spent 168 days there and completed four spacewalks. A naval aviator, Glover was serving as a U.S. Senate legislative fellow when he was accepted into the astronaut program. His father and stepmother live in Prosper, Texas.
"I just had this overwhelming feeling like, ‘Wow, what science about the moon does in the future is going to at least be affected a little bit by what we say about that view,'" Glover said. "And so that has changed how I look at the moon since."
Koch has spent 328 consecutive days at the ISS, the longest single spaceflight for a woman and one of the longest lengths of time in space. While there, she participated in the first all-female spacewalk. Her career began as an electrical engineer at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Washington, D.C. She was part of a research team in the U.S. Antarctic Program, including a yearlong stay at the South Pole. She joined the astronaut program in 2013.
"We can actually learn more about solar system formation, more about how planets form, maybe around other stars, more about the likelihood of life out there, starting with studying the moon," Koch said. "And I think that question is, in my opinion, one of the biggest philosophical questions of our time. And I think some of the first steps to answering it start with this mission."
Hansen is the only astronaut on the mission not affiliated with NASA: he's a part of the Canadian Space Agency, a close affiliate of the American spaceflight program. Born in London, Ontario, Hansen is the only astronaut on Artemis II not to have previously flown in space. He was selected as an astronaut in 2009 and worked both at the Johnson Space Center and on several international training missions. In 2017, he became the first Canadian to lead a NASA astronaut class.
"The moon is something I’ve sort of taken for granted," Hansen said. “I’ve looked at it my whole life. But then, you know, you just kind of glance at it, glance away. But now I’ve been staring at it a lot more, and I think others are going to join us in staring at the moon a lot more as there are humans flying around the far side. I think that’s just good for humanity."
Houston's Johnson Space Center is central
From virtually the moment Artemis II lifts off the ground, a crew of flight controllers in Houston's mission control at the Johnson Space Center will try to ensure the flight process is seamless.
Beyond that, the vast majority of preparation for astronauts and their work takes place at the Johnson Space Center. The four astronauts trained in Houston. They quarantine in Houston ahead of the mission, too.
As NASA notes, it led the Gemini, Apollo, Apollo-Soyuz and Skylab projects. It was home of the Space Shuttle Program, leads ISS operations and now the Artemis program.
Houston's ties to spaceflight stretch back to the early days of NASA, when the Johnson Space Center — then called the Manned Spacecraft Center — was first established.
It was at Rice University in 1962 when then-President John F. Kennedy gave his "we choose to go to the moon" speech, which became one of the most notable speeches of the 20th century. He called Rice "a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a state noted for strength." In fact, just before the most famous lines of the speech, Kennedy quipped about Rice.
"Why, some say, the moon?" Kennedy said. "Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
The Space Launch System and Orion
In order to get to the moon, Artemis II will use the most powerful rocket ever developed by NASA. It goes by the name "space launch system" or SLS.
Standing at 32 stories tall, the SLS has the power of about 8.8 million pounds of thrust, the upward force to launch the rocket. By contrast, Apollo 17's rocket, the Saturn V, generated 7.6 million pounds of thrust.
Throughout the mission, the SLS will detach bit by bit until all that's left is the Orion spacecraft, where the four astronauts will live and work.
Orion has about the cubic space of two minivans, NASA says. It comes with a medical kit, an exercise machine and, importantly, a new type of space toilet. Orion itself is partially reusable, an important aspect to the Artemis program.
"You can minimize it by saying, ‘It’s a capsule, it’s going to the moon, coming back, splashing into the water, so they’re identical,' but there’s a huge amount of difference now," said Alexander of Rice University’s Space Institute. "And the main reason is that we want these to be redundant — we want these reusable systems."
The rockets for the SLS, however, are not reusable, which has drawn some skepticism. Private space exploration companies have emphasized a long-term desire for a reusable rocket.
How to keep up with Artemis II
Houston Public Media expects to provide daily coverage of the Artemis II mission when it launches.
NASA has a 24/7 livestream of Artemis II docked at the launchpad, which is currently live. The administration will have a livestream of the launch as well.
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