Billions of Dollars and More Than 50 Years Later, NASA Prepares to Return to the Moon
The Artemis program represents both NASA’s past and what many hope will be its future
NASA’s Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on March 24.
Photographer: Gregg Newton/AFP/Getty Images
American astronauts last set foot on the moon in 1972. More than half a century later, NASA is preparing to take a big step toward returning.
As soon as April 1, the US space agency is expected to launch a mission called Artemis II from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. It will test the Space Launch System rocket, built by Boeing Co., and the Orion crew capsule, made by Lockheed Martin Corp., which together are taller than the Statue of Liberty. Four astronauts will pack into Orion for a trip around the moon and back.