NASA is making final preparations for the highly anticipated Artemis II mission, which will send astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than five decades.
The space agency plans to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, April 1, at 6:24 p.m. ET.
The four crew members – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency) – will travel aboard an Orion spacecraft launched by NASA’s impressive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
After a few days in low Earth orbit and checking the spacecraft’s systems, the crew sends Orion on course for a rendezvous with our nearest neighbor. The 10-day trip will not land on the moon, but will fly around it before returning home.
The mission is of course very special for each of these crew members, but for Hansen it has an added personal impact since the flight will be his very first time in space.
While Wiseman, Glover and Koch each flew to the International Space Station (ISS) for their first orbital experience, Hansen will travel several hundred thousand miles further from Earth for his first space flight.
Hansen will also be the first non-American and first Canadian to travel to the moon, a historic achievement that will cement his place in history and make him a national hero.
“I just want Canadians to feel that pride,” Hansen told CBC when he was announced as one of the Artemis II crew members in 2023. “I just want Canadians to realize, hey, we have big plans here in Canada and we can achieve the seemingly impossible if we believe in ourselves.”
Artemis II is also a groundbreaking mission for Glover and Koch, who are about to become the first Black man and the first woman to travel to the moon – major milestones in their own right.
With just a few days until the scheduled launch date, the four crew members are in quarantine, poring over the flight plan and making sure they are ready for the mission of a lifetime.
Would you like to know more about the mission? Then watch NASA’s video showing exactly how the flight is expected to unfold.
