CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA has successfully launched a crewed mission to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard and set to become the first Canadian to travel beyond low-Earth orbit and fly around the moon.
The Artemis II mission lifted off Wednesday evening from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Space Launch System rocket, sending four astronauts into deep space on a 10-day journey around the moon and back.
Hansen is joined by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch on what is being described as a key step toward returning humans to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo era.
Following liftoff, the Orion spacecraft entered orbit around Earth within minutes, beginning a series of system checks and manoeuvres before departing for the moon. Over the next day, the crew is expected to remain in Earth orbit while testing the spacecraft’s systems and preparing for a major engine burn that will send them on a trans-lunar trajectory.
Once underway, the astronauts will spend about four days travelling roughly 384,000 kilometres through space before reaching the moon. The mission does not include a landing, but will see the spacecraft loop around the far side of the moon, using its gravity to propel the crew back toward Earth.
The crew is expected to pass behind the moon about five to six days into the mission, becoming the first humans in decades to view its far side directly.
The return journey will take another several days, with the Orion capsule re-entering Earth’s atmosphere at speeds approaching 40,000 kilometres per hour before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery crews will retrieve the astronauts.
Artemis II marks the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program and is considered a critical step toward future missions, including a planned landing on the moon later this decade.
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