Artemis 2 Astronauts Arrive for Historic Moon Mission

The four astronauts for NASA's Artemis 2 mission have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This mission marks NASA's first crewed flight to the moon in over 50 years. The crew arrived on March 27, flying in T-38 jets from Houston, Texas. They landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time.

The astronauts are NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency. At the time, the launch was scheduled to occur as soon as April 1. Their ride was to be NASA's powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. They were to travel inside the Orion spacecraft on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth.

This flight is the first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program. The goal of Artemis is to build a lasting human presence on the moon. The last time astronauts flew to the moon was in 1972 on the Apollo 17 mission.

The crew had been in quarantine since March 20. This is a standard health procedure to prevent astronauts from getting sick before a mission. They entered quarantine on the same day the SLS rocket was moved to its launch pad.

At the time, this was their last stop on Earth before going to space. The astronauts were to stay in quarantine until launch. The planned launch window for the mission was from April 1 through April 6.

Artemis 2 is a critical test. It is designed to check the Orion spacecraft's life support systems with astronauts on board for the first time. The crew will not land on the moon during this mission. Instead, they will fly in a large loop around the far side of the moon. Their path is called a free-return trajectory. This path uses the moon's gravity to sling the spacecraft back toward Earth without needing a major engine burn after the initial push toward the moon.

This was the second time the SLS rocket for Artemis 2 was moved to the launch pad. NASA had to roll it back to its assembly building earlier this year. This was due to maintenance issues found during tests in February.

If Artemis 2 is successful, NASA's next steps are already planned. Next year, Artemis 3 will test the Orion spacecraft and new lunar landers in Earth's orbit. After that, NASA aims for the program's first moon landing on the Artemis 4 mission, currently planned for 2028.

Looking further ahead, NASA hopes to build a more permanent base on the moon in the 2030s. This could include habitats for astronauts, moon rovers, and regular cargo deliveries.

On the runway after landing, astronaut Reid Wiseman shared his team's excitement. "It's awesome to be here. We love coming here," Wiseman said. "About 100 miles away, we said how much we love flying to KSC."

He also thanked the NASA team that supports the astronauts. "I just want to send a special thank you to our AOD team. They pulled a lot together to make this possible for us to get to fly these jets and stay in quarantine and have all the support," he said.

If the schedule had held, the crew would have moved to a facility named for Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, early on April 1. There, they were to put on their spacesuits. Meanwhile, mission teams would have worked through the final countdown procedures.

A major step was to be fueling the SLS rocket. NASA planned to start pumping the rocket's super-cold fuel—liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen—into the tanks at 7:45 a.m. Eastern Time on April 1. Liftoff was scheduled for a two-hour window that opened at 6:24 p.m. the same day.

At the time, NASA noted that if there were any delays, they could try to launch again on another day. The team had up to four launch attempts available between April 1 and April 6. If they could not launch during that first week, the next opportunity was to open on April 30.