After the successful test of the moon mission “Artemis 1”, the US space agency Nasa is still aiming for a manned launch of the “Artemis 2” mission for November 2024.
“We’re learning as much as we can from Artemis 1 to ensure we understand every aspect of our systems and use that knowledge to plan and execute manned missions,” NASA executive Jim Free said at a news conference on Tuesday. “Keeping our crew flying safely is the highest priority for Artemis 2.” About a year after “Artemis 2”, another manned flight including moon landing is to follow with “Artemis 3”.
“Artemis 1” landed in December after almost 26 days in space in the Pacific. The unmanned capsule “Orion” traveled around 1.4 million miles through space, flew around the moon and collected important data. The European Space Agency Esa and space agencies from several other countries are involved in “Artemis”.
The unmanned test mission was considered an important step for the return of humans to the moon, with the long-term goal of a trip to Mars. The “Artemis” program, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, is intended to land a woman and a non-white person on the moon for the first time.
