NASA on April 2 is preparing to send four astronauts on a 10-day flight around the Moon. This is the largest U.S. space mission in recent decades and a key step for humanity to return to Earth’s satellite before China lands its crew.
In the mission, the SLS rocket and Orion capsule are ready for launch on Wednesday at 18:24 local time (03:24 Tashkent time, April 2). The rocket will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida — the site of the last Apollo mission half a century ago.
Crew: NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen. They arrived in Florida from Houston on March 27 and underwent a two-week quarantine before the flight.
During the flight, astronauts will test life support systems and communication interfaces, and also practice manual control of the Orion spacecraft. The Artemis II mission will carry the crew into lunar orbit at 406,000 kilometers — the farthest flight in human history.
The SLS rocket was built by Boeing and Northrop Grumman; the Orion capsule by Lockheed Martin. Each flight costs 2–4 billion dollars, aimed at ensuring U.S. leadership in space.
NASA plans through this program to create a long-term base at the Moon’s south pole and land the first crew in Artemis IV by 2028. At the same time, SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing lunar landing vehicles.
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