CAPE CANAVERAL (United States), April 2 — A United States (US) spacecraft carrying four astronauts was launched Wednesday for a flight around the Moon in the first manned lunar exploration since the Apollo era half a century ago, Kyodo News reported.
The astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission are scheduled to fly on the Orion spaceship for around 10 days, passing the Moon some 380,000 kilometers away before circling its far side and returning to Earth.
As the four — three Americans and one Canadian — are set to travel far beyond the Moon as part of the flight path, they are likely to surpass the current deep-space record for any human, made by the crew of Apollo 13 as it ventured some 400,000 km away from Earth in 1970.
The Orion spacecraft, atop a 98-metre-tall Space Launch System rocket, took off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, late Wednesday afternoon.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Orion will spend approximately four days travelling to the Moon after circling Earth twice, during which the crew will test equipment and adjust its trajectory.
While circling behind the Moon, the spacecraft will change its trajectory toward Earth using lunar gravity and spend around another four days travelling back home. It will splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
The U.S.-led Artemis program aims to build a foothold for sustainable human exploration on the Moon, with the hope of paving the way for human missions to Mars. Japan and the United States have agreed to give Japanese astronauts two opportunities to travel to the lunar surface.
With Artemis I, NASA successfully carried out an uncrewed mission around the Moon in 2022. Orion spent nearly 26 days in space before splashing down in the sea off Baja California, Mexico.
Artemis IV, two stages after Artemis II, is expected to see astronauts return to the lunar surface in 2028 and spend about a week there before travelling back to Earth.
The United States, with Apollo 8, conducted the first-ever manned mission to orbit the Moon in 1968. Apollo 11 became the first to land on the lunar surface the following year.
Humankind last landed on the Moon in 1972, with Apollo 17.
