Artemis Two: First Crewed Moon Mission in 50 Years

0:00On March 30th, NASA's gearing up for Artemis II, the first crew trip around the moon in over 50 years, pushing humans farther into space than ever before. After a liquid hydrogen leak, scrubbed their practice run. They're now targeting a launch window from April 1st through 6th, from Kennedy Space, Center in Florida. This mission kicks off the next phase of NASA's Artemis program. Started back in 2017 to give boots back on the lunar surface since the Apollo days ended in 1972. Artemis I already looped an uncrewed Orion capsule around the moon in November 2022, testing the massive space launch system rocket. The crew's a tight squad of three American astronauts and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen, who said to be the first from his country to orbit the moon. All but Hansen have spaceflight under their belts, and they've just wrapped up their pre-launch quarantine to stay healthy. On this 10-day jaunt, they'll test life support, navigation, and comms in deep space,

1:00starting with manual piloting and Earth's high orbit before. Slingshotting around the moon's far side, peaking 4,600 miles beyond it. The lays from cold weather and past heat shield fixes on Orion have pushed things back, but safeties locked in tight. With billions poured into the SLS and Orion around 4 billion per launch, this sets the state for lunar bases and Mars runs, keeping the U.S. ahead, and the space race while eyes they glued to the countdown.