Fifty years after the end of the historic «Apollo» program, the new U.S. space program «Artemis» begins today (named after Apollo’s sister in Greek mythology, which is why this name was chosen during the Trump administration). The U.S. is launching—if all goes according to plan—its mission to return to the Moon for the first time since 1972, when it last set foot on the Moon.
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has scheduled the launch of the «Artemis 1» mission is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 15:33 Greek time on Monday, using a massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that will carry the uncrewed Orion (Orion) capsule around the Moon for a six-week test flight before returning to Earth.
Current weather forecasts indicate an 80% probability that today’s weather conditions will be favorable. If something goes wrong (due to a technical problem or the weather), September 2 or 5 have been set as alternative launch dates. On Sunday, a storm hit the Kennedy Space Center, and the lightning rods around the launch pad drew the lightning strikes, though NASA was not particularly concerned.
The SLS and Orion are 98 meters tall. The SLS, which took more than ten years to develop and build, is considered the most powerful and most complex rocket in the world, although, according to *The Economist*, it is an excessively expensive government project and a waste of taxpayer money. The main subcontractors for the Artemis program are Boeing for the SLS and Lockheed Martin for the Orion capsule.
The last time such a mega-rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center was in 1973, when a Saturn V (Saturn V) launched the Skylab space station into orbit. NASA plans to launch the crewed Artemis 2 mission around the Moon in 2024, and finally, in 2025, for the Artemis 3 mission to land on the Moon (carrying the first female astronaut to the Moon).
This will likely lay the groundwork this time for a more permanent lunar base and an astronaut presence on Earth’s moon, with the ultimate goal of establishing a base on Mars sometime in the 2030s. However, several experts do not rule out the possibility that this entire timeline is overly «tight» and ambitious, so it may be pushed back a few years.
The last people to walk on the moon were the two male astronauts of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, while ten other American astronauts had preceded them during five previous missions, beginning with the first moon landing by the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
In recent years, China has successfully landed three robotic missions on the Moon and is planning its own lunar base for the 2030s; India and Israel sent their own lunar missions in 2019 but failed, while a South Korean mission is currently en route, aiming to enter orbit around the Moon. In general, several countries are actively pursuing missions to the Moon, and the U.S. has an extra competitive incentive to stay ahead of the curve.
In recent decades, NASA has turned its attention to other planets (Mars) and large moons (of Saturn and Jupiter), but it is now once again interested in the Moon, among other things as a way station for more distant space destinations. This is all the more true given that in recent years it has become clear that there is sufficient water in frozen form on the Moon, which is important for a more permanent human presence, not only as drinking water but also as rocket fuel after it is broken down into oxygen and hydrogen.
The Moon, or a space station orbiting the Moon, will serve as a refueling station for a longer journey, such as to Mars. For now, however, scientists do not know exactly how much water there is on the Moon or how easy it will be to actually use it, since it is usually found deep within sunless craters.
NASA TV will broadcast the launch live (in English), starting at 1:30 p.m. Greek time.
