Back to the moon: NASA’s Artemis mission

For the first time in more than half a century, the United States has sent astronauts back around the moon and safely home again.

The four-member Artemis II crew includes Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen of Canada. The mission marked NASA’s first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years. Photo courtesy NASA.

NASA’s Artemis pro­gram, named for the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, is designed to return humans to the lunar surface, build a long-term presence there and help pave the way for future missions to Mars.

For many Americans, the idea still carries a sense of wonder. The last time astro­nauts traveled to the moon was in 1972, when Apollo 17 closed the first chapter of lu­nar exploration. Since then, generations have grown up knowing the moon mostly as something seen through a telescope, hanging over desert mesas, or lighting the night sky.

Now that has changed.

Earth appears to set beyond the moon’s cratered horizon in an image captured during NASA’s Artemis II mission. Photo courtesy of NASA.

NASA says Artemis is testing new spacecraft, new mission systems and tech­nologies meant to support longer stays on the moon. Unlike the Apollo era, the goal is not just to plant a flag and come home. Artemis is intended to build a founda­tion for repeated missions, scientific research and eventual deep-space travel.

NASA’s first crewed Ar­temis mission, Artemis II, carried four astronauts around the moon and back to Earth. The crew includ­ed Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen of Canada. Glover became the first Black astronaut to travel to the moon, Koch the first woman assigned to a lunar mission and Hansen the first Canadian selected for a moon mission. NASA has said a later Artemis land­ing mission is expected to include the first woman and first person of color to walk on the lunar surface.

The Artemis program previously completed a ma­jor milestone with Artemis I, an uncrewed mission that sent the Orion spacecraft around the moon and safely back to Earth.

For readers in southern Utah, the moon can feel especially close. Clear skies, dark nights and open country make this region one of the better places in the nation to look upward. On many nights, the moon rises over sandstone cliffs and canyon country much as it has for centuries, now with the knowledge that people have once again traveled there and back.

Space exploration often arrives wrapped in engi­neering language, budgets and schedules. But at its heart, it still asks an old human question: what’s out there, and can we reach it?

This time, the answer has again come from a voyage around the moon, with more missions expected ahead.