Back To The Moon

This upcoming journey doesn’t seem to be getting much attention now given the train wreck of current world events, but the United States is on the verge of launching four astronauts on a trip around the moon. This is the Artemis II space mission, which will start no earlier than February 6th. The launch vehicle arrived at its launch pad last week. There are monthly launch windows, so if the initial attempt has to be scrubbed, they will postpone to the next or subsequent months. The mission profile is similar to that of Apollo 8 in December 1968, although unlike in Apollo 8, the spacecraft will be sent on a “free return” trajectory to the moon (the spacecraft will not have to fire its engines to get back to Earth).

I am excited and nervous and will be following closely. 1968 wasn’t exactly a year of peace and harmony either, so there’s that.