Artemis Program
- It is NASA’s program to return astronauts to the Moon, preparing the way for human missions to Mars.
- It aims to “land the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon”, and explore the lunar surface.
- The Artemis program includes the construction of the Lunar Gateway space station in orbit around the Moon.
- Artemis I: An uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, launched on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on November 16, 2022.
Artemis 2 Mission
- It will be the first mission to carry humans to the moon’s vicinity since 1972.
- It is the second scheduled flight of the Artemis program and the first crewed Artemis mission.
- During Artemis II, four astronauts will fly around the moon before returning to Earth.
- It will use the huge Space Launch System (SLS) mega-rocket and Orion spacecraft to launch the crew on the lunar flyby mission.
- It will include three astronauts from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency.
- The astronauts and mission controllers will collect data on Orion and the crew’s performance to assess how ready the Artemis program is to send people to the moon’s surface.