The Artemis era well and truly began Friday evening when a shiny spacecraft that had traveled 700,000 miles around the Moon, carrying four astronauts, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
For NASA, for its international partners, and for all of humanity the successful conclusion of the Artemis II mission marked a return to deep space by our species after more than half a century.
It was a spectacular achievement, and NASA deserves credit for making something what is very difficult look relatively easy. But it also raises an important question: What comes next?
NASA recently revised its mission plans for Artemis III and IV, to provide a stepping stone mission before undertaking the landing of humans on the Moon. Much, and more, work needs to be done to make those flights happen. And to be perfectly blunt, the Artemis II mission that concluded Friday was the lowest hanging fruit of the Artemis Program.
“The work ahead is greater than the work behind us,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, after the landing on Friday night.
What comes next involves more complex operations, requiring multiple vehicles, and ultimately going down to another planetary body. To reach its objectives, NASA will have to take the training wheels off. Here, then, is the status of the major elements that must come together to land humans on the Moon.
Space Launch System
Multiple NASA officials have praised the performance of the Space Launch System rocket during the Artemis II launch on April 1, saying it nailed the target orbit for the mission with greater than 99 percent accuracy.
The core stage for the Artemis III mission is expected to leave the factory in Michoud, Louisiana, later this month for delivery to Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Other rocket elements have already arrived, or will soon.
Meanwhile, the Mobile Launch Tower sustained moderate damage, and it will soon be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida for refurbishment and then stacking operations for the next mission.