KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA’s Artemis II rocket is positioned at the Kennedy Space Center in preparation for a mission scheduled to launch on Wednesday.
The mission will send four astronauts on a flyby mission around the moon.
This would be the first crewed lunar mission for NASA in more than 50 years.
While the crew will not land on the moon, NASA said the mission will serve as a pathfinder for future missions to the lunar surface.
The Artemis II crew arrived on the Florida Space Coast last week to prepare for the flight.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch described the mission as a shift in how the moon is perceived.
“How do we feel as the people that can call the moon the destination, a destination, not just something we’re looking at and it is our strong hope that this mission is the start of an era where everyone, every person on earth can look at the moon and think of it as also a destination,” Koch said.
Behind the scenes, teams have spent years designing and manufacturing the space suits that the four astronauts will wear during the mission.
These Orion spacesuits are built to protect the crew during high-activity periods and potential emergencies.
Dustin Gohmert, the Orion Crew Survival System Manager at NASA, explained that the suits provide protection throughout the entire transit to the moon and back.
“The main thing about the Orion spacesuit is it’s designed to keep the crew safe not only at launch and landing, during dynamic phases of flight, but if something were to go wrong while you’re in transit to the moon or in lunar orbit, they’re designed to sustain you for that full duration of return,” Gohmert said.
The Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch on Wednesday.
Teams at the Kennedy Space Center are conducting final preparations for the flight.
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