Humans Flyby Moon, Paving Way for Future Landings

0:00More than 50 years after Apollo 17, four astronauts just swung by the moon without touching down on Artemis II. NASA launched this crude fly-by on April 1st from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, kicking off a 10-day trip to test deep space gear for the first, time with humans aboard. This step makes total sense in NASA's cautious game plan. The Orion spacecraft they're riding can't land anyway, and there's no ready-lander from outfits like SpaceX or Blue Origin yet. It's all about shaking out bugs early, since tech has evolved big time since the Apollo days wrapped in 1972. Folks are buzzing about this milestone, the first humans leaving Earth orbit since back then. It builds straight-off Artemis I, that uncrewed run in 2022 that looped the moon and proved the big rocket works. Right now, the crew's gathering key data on the way around, with eight intense days left before Splashdown on the evening of April 10th of Sun. Diego, NASA's landings around 2028 to ramp up moon science and gear up for Mars.

1:02This fly-by-locks in safe deep space travel, clearing the runway for those boots on the surface missions that change everything ahead. This has been Dallas News Today, powered by AI.