NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second \u200bArtemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity\u2019s broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space, faced with growing competition from China. Three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut \u200care due for liftoff aboard NASA\u2019s Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before. The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA\u2019s Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon\u2019s surface, a tricky \u200bfeat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the rugged lunar south pole. The U.S. is the only country to have put humans on another celestial body with its six lunar landings of the Apollo \u200bprogram, driven by competition with the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials have more recently focused on China, a formidable technological rival that has made steady progress in its \u2060own moon program in recent years with a string of robotic lunar landings and a 2030 goal to put its own crew on the surface. Answering \u2018The question of our lifetime\u2019 NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on \u200bSunday said the moon is a \u201cwitness plate\u201d to the solar system\u2019s formation, and a stepping stone to Mars, \u201cwhere we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life.\u201d \u201cMany, many countries have recognised the value that there is \u200bin exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars,\u201d she told reporters. \u201cThey recognise that not only can we gain all these extremely tangible benefits, but that we have the opportunity to answer the question that could be the question of our lifetime, which is, are we alone?\u201d \u201cAnswering that question starts at the moon,\u201d she said. \u201cThe question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?\u201d Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, \u200bthe U.S. aims to set a precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon\u2019s surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars. The other crew members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first Canadian astronaut to reach the lunar vicinity. Hansen\u2019s participation was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. \u201cIt was the result \u200cof decades of \u2060contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation,\u201d said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA\u2019s astronaut office, citing Canadian robotics contributions on the International Space Station. Commercial lunar market NASA is relying on an array of companies in its moon program, hoping to stimulate a commercial lunar market in the future, the value of which is hard to estimate, analysts say. Boeing and Northrop Grumman lead SLS, and Lockheed Martin builds Orion for NASA. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing their own landers with NASA funding, but under contracts that allow them to offer the spacecraft to other customers. A January PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates $127 billion in revenues by 2050 from lunar surface activities, with investments potentially \u200breaching $72 billion to $88 billion through the same period. For now, and \u200bin the near future, governments will drive companies\u2019 \u2060lunar strategies and revenue. It will be a long time before key infrastructure, such as energy and communications systems, develops to the point where commercial growth exists on the moon independently of government funding, said Akhil Rao, an economist at analysis firm Rational Futures who was a research economist at NASA. Rao, who was among the group of \u200bNASA economists and space policy staff laid off last year during the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping federal workforce cuts, said he does \u201cnot see a short-run economic value \u200bthat companies would be able to \u2060derive that would allow NASA to be hands-off.\u201d The Artemis II mission will pose a greater test of NASA\u2019s Orion capsule and SLS, which conducted a similar uncrewed mission in 2022. The astronauts on board will test critical life-support systems, crew interfaces, navigation and communications. Liftoff is scheduled for April 1, though it could happen any day after until April 6, depending on weather conditions in Florida and any last-minute snags with the rocket. Thereafter, another launch window, determined largely by orbital \u2060mechanics between Earth \u200band the moon, opens on April 30. Artemis III, planned for 2027, will involve the Orion capsule docking in Earth\u2019s orbit with NASA\u2019s \u200btwo lunar landers – the Blue Origin system and Starship from Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX. The delicate tag-up will demonstrate how the landers will pick up astronauts before heading for the moon\u2019s surface. That mission was added to the program in February by NASA\u2019s new administrator, \u200bJared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who has more broadly shaken up the program with new objectives. His decision pushed the program\u2019s first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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