NASA has unveiled the Artemis II Orion spacecraft and twin rocket boosters that will carry astronauts on a historic lunar flyby mission. The crewed mission, set to launch in April 2026, marks a major milestone in NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon.
The spacecraft will be piloted by four astronauts: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency representative Jeremy Hansen. Their mission will test Orion’s critical life support systems, confirm its systems operate as designed with crew on board, and prepare for future lunar landings.
Artemis II builds upon the success of uncrewed Artemis I, which tested the spacecraft’s capabilities. During the flyby mission, the crew will manually control the spacecraft during its orbit around the moon and back. The twin solid rocket boosters are 177 feet tall and have been assembled at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
The Artemis program aims to land the first woman and the next man on the moon, with an uncrewed lunar landing mission scheduled for mid-2027.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-rolls-artemis-ii-orion-202932538.html