Artemis Mission: what is known about the return of humans to the Moon

Since the Apollo program first landed a man on the Moon in 1969 and was discontinued in 1972, no human has set foot on the satellite again, but NASA intends to change that soon.

A Artemis mission aims to not only take humans back to the Moon within this decade, but also send the first female and African-descendant astronauts to the satellite.

To achieve this, NASA carried out the first phase of the program, without astronauts on board, in December 2023. Artemis I was an unmanned test mission that sent NASA's Orion capsule on a 2.25 million-kilometer journey to circle the Moon.

The space agency considered the mission a success and is still working to review all the data collected.

On Thursday (22), the United States carried out the first landing on the moon in more than 50 years, with the Odysseus module, nicknamed “Odie”, without a crew.

“Odie” was launched by a SpaceX and NASA rocket, with the aim of evaluating the lunar environment before manned missions to the Moon under the Artemis program.

Schedule delays

The second part of the mission, Artemis II was scheduled to take place in 2024 — in a manned flight, however, without landing on the Moon — and the next phase, Artemis III for 2025 — with astronauts setting foot on the Moon again.

However, in January this year, NASA announced delays in the mission schedule.

According to the space agency, Artemis II is not expected to blast off before 2025. The journey is estimated to last about ten days and send the crew past the Moon, potentially further than any human has traveled in history, although the exact distance has not yet been determined.

After circling the Moon, the spacecraft will return to Earth for a landing in the Pacific Ocean.

This results in the delay of the Artemis III mission, which does not occur before September 2026, according to NASA estimates.

Much of the technology the mission will require, including spacesuits for walking on the Moon and a lunar module to transport astronauts to the surface, is still in development.

The main reasons for the delay include SpaceX's prospects for the development of Starship, the gigantic rocket and spacecraft system that is expected to transport astronauts to the moon's south pole. Two Starship test flights in 2023 ended in explosions.

Astronauts going to the Moon

The list of astronauts confirmed on the Artemis II mission has already been released by NASA: Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman.

Christina Koch , 44, is a veteran of six spacewalks. She holds the record for the longest space flight by a woman, with a total of 328 days in space. Christina is also an electrical engineer who has helped develop scientific instruments for several NASA missions. She also spent a year at the South Pole, an arduous stay that may well prepare her for the intensity of a lunar mission.

Jeremy Hansen was selected to be an astronaut almost 14 years ago, but is still waiting for his first flight mission. The 47-year-old fighter pilot recently became the first Canadian to be entrusted with training a new class of NASA astronauts.

Victor Glover , a 46-year-old naval aviator who returned to Earth from his first spaceflight in 2021, after piloting the second crewed flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft and spending nearly six months aboard the International Space Station. The veteran of four spacewalks earned a master's degree in engineering while working as a test pilot.

Reid Wiseman served as Flight Engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41 from May to November 2014. During the 165-day mission, Reid and his crewmates completed more than 300 scientific experiments in areas including human physiology, medicine, science physics and astrophysics.

Mission is named after the Greek goddess Artemis

NASA's mission to take humans back to the Moon is named after Artemis, twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology.

The Apollo mission, responsible for taking man to the Moon during the late 1960s, was named after the Greek god of the Sun, prophecy, poetry, arts, music, medicine and justice.

Now, with the expected return to the Moon, the mission has also received a name full of symbolism, inspired by Greek mythology. Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo, and goddess of the Moon, chastity, hunting, childbirth and wild animals.

The Greek goddess represents throughout history a symbol of independence and female protagonism — which seems appropriate for the mission that will take a woman to a point on the Moon where no man has been, the south pole.

*With information from CNN International