I Should Be Excited About Artemis II
One of, if not my favorite movie is Apollo 13, a 1995 blockbuster film telling the story of what was supposed to be NASA's third mission to land on the moon, but turned into a heroic effort to bring the three astronauts home after an explosion aboard the spacecraft. Needless to say, I'm kind of a space nerd following along with what NASA has done with the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), its various missions around the solar system, and more. Artemis II is preparing to launch. This is the first manned mission of the Artemis program, and they're going to the moon. They won't be landing, but this is kind of a big mission. Yet, for some strange reason I just haven't been as excited about it as I would've expected.
I've been trying to figure out why that is. This is the first time NASA, or any other country for that matter are sending astronauts beyond low Earth orbit since 1972 and Apollo 17. All missions since launched by the US, Russia, or China have all been in Earth orbit whether it was a mission to Mir, the ISS, or anything else. It should be an exciting time, to see us break the bonds of Earth's gravity and head to the moon.
Maybe it has been all the delays. There have been plenty of hiccups since President George W. Bush indicated for the end of the Shuttle program and for us to return to the moon back in the early 2000s. The Constellation Program was started in 2005 to do just that. It was short lived though. NASA launched Ares I-X in October 2009 before President Obama cancelled it in 2010 due to findings that it would need more funding in order to be successful. The manned capsule lived on to be part of the Space Launch System and the Artemis Program funded by Congress in 2011. It took 11 years for the first Artemis mission, Artemis I to launch. It was an unmanned mission that launched in November 2022. It flew around the moon and returned to earth, taking some fantastic photos. Three and a half years later, we're only now gearing up for Artemis II. Part of that was I believe caused by some questions about the heat shield on the Orion capsule, but even the Space Shuttle launched more often. Obviously, I'd much rather NASA be safe rather than risk the astronauts' lives by repeating mistakes that helped cause the Challenger and Columbia disasters, but the delays keep putting it further back in my mind.
In January, NASA rolled the SLS rocket out to the pad for Artemis II for a March launch. After 2 dress rehearsals, one cancelled by a hydrogen leak and another cancelled by a problem with the helium system in the upper stage. This was apparently an issue that could not be fixed on the pad, so the whole rocket had to be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) so they could fix the problem. They've since corrected it and are preparing to roll it back to the launch pad in the hopes of an early April launch.
Since then, there's also been changes to the Artemis program. Artemis III was supposed to have humans land on the moon. That's been pushed back to Artemis IV. Artemis III is slated for 2027 with Artemis IV scheduled for 2028. Given all the delays and time between Artemis I and II, I'm skeptical, as are those overseeing NASA.
The other thing I've noticed is that there's been little press about the mission in the news. I know the war in Iran is taking a lot of the news cycles, and before that it was ICE in Minnesota, the Epstein files, and hell knows what other firestorms coming out of the White House. But I'd think this mission would be broadcast, even if it was just something cynical to distract us from what are genuinely more serious issues. And that really could also be what's tripping me up. There's so much awfulness going on in my home country, and the world that I'm often distracted by the latest disaster out of Washington that I struggle to follow everything going on in the world without finding myself in a dark place.
And despite the lunacy of the Artemis Program, I still am in awe of the engineering and science it takes to launch rockets into space and send spacecraft, manned or unmanned, to other celestial bodies. And it is a nice looking rocket.
Despite the lessened excitement, I'm looking forward to watching the launch and following the mission. Here's hoping the mission will go smoothly and safely.