"NASA may be headed back to the moon months sooner than originally planned, with the agency announcing that the first crewed flight in its Artemis programme could make the trip around the moon and back as early as February. The space agency's Artemis programme is the flagship effort by the United States to return humans to the moon, a multibillion-dollar series of missions that rivals a similar effort by China, which is aiming for a 2030 astronaut moon landing."
"The goal of the Artemis II mission, a 10-day flight around the moon and back, is to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars, according to NASA. The crew of Artemis II will not land on the moon but will be the first to travel beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, the BBC reported. The mission was originally planned for April, but it could be moved up to February."
"We together have a front row seat to history, Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA's acting deputy associate administrator, said in a news conference on Tuesday. The launch window could open as early as the fifth of February, but we want to emphasise that safety is our top priority. Artemis II is meant to be a test for the agency's more ambitious mission, Artemis III, currently planned for 2027, and will involve a moon lander variant of SpaceX's Starship rocket."
Artemis II is a planned 10-day crewed flight that will travel around the Moon and return, with a potential launch window as early as February. The mission will not land on the lunar surface but will be the first human flight beyond low Earth orbit since 1972. Artemis II will use NASA's Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule, launching from Kennedy Space Center. The mission aims to advance scientific discovery, economic opportunities, and to build operational foundations for Artemis III, which targets a lunar landing with a Starship-derived lander and supports longer-term crewed missions to Mars.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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