The US Artemis 2 manned lunar mission officially departs

This is the first time in 52 years that the United States has sent astronauts to the vicinity of the moon since the end of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, marking a decisive step in humanity's return to manned deep space exploration and opening a new stage of manned exploration for NASA's Artemis moon landing program.

1、 Launch moment: SLS rocket takes off, embarking on a 10 day journey around the moon

At 18:43 local time on April 1st, there was a roar coming from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center. The SLS rocket, which was 98 meters high and equivalent to 30 stories tall, carried the Orion spacecraft straight into the sky, and the tail sprayed dazzling orange red flames, instantly illuminating the surrounding sky. The live audience and NASA staff witnessed this historic moment together, with cheers intertwined with the roar of rockets.

About 16 minutes after launch, the SLS rocket core stage engine successfully shut down and separated from the spacecraft. Subsequently, the four solar panels of the Orion spacecraft were successfully deployed, providing continuous power to the spacecraft. The completion of this critical step marked the spacecraft entering normal flight mode. According to the mission plan, the Artemis 2 mission will last for about 10 days. The spacecraft will first orbit the Earth twice to test the performance of life support, communication and navigation systems, and then go to lunar orbit. After completing the lunar orbit, it will return to Earth and eventually splash down in the Pacific Ocean.

2、 Core lineup: 4 astronauts set sail, carrying diverse exploration significance

The Artemis 2 mission carried four experienced astronauts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), who not only possess professional capabilities, but also carry the diverse significance of human deep space exploration. The commanding officer is Reed Wiseman, who has 27 years of experience in aerospace and has worked on the International Space Station for 165 days, leading over 300 scientific experiments and possessing strong command and emergency response capabilities.

Victor Glover, the pilot in the crew, became the first colored astronaut to leave low Earth orbit and orbit the moon; Mission expert Christina Koch is the first female astronaut to participate in a lunar orbit. She stayed on the International Space Station for 328 days, holding the record for a single female spaceflight and completing the first all female spacewalk; Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency, as a mission expert, became the first non American astronaut to carry out a lunar orbit mission, demonstrating the international cooperation nature of this mission. These four astronauts will complete multiple testing tasks during the flight, accumulating key experience for subsequent manned moon landings.

3、 Task core: Testing key technologies to pave the way for manned lunar landing

Unlike the 1972 Apollo program's "deck landing", Artemis 2 was not a manned lunar mission, but a crucial manned test flight with the core objective of testing the performance of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft in deep space environments, laying the foundation for the subsequent Artemis 3 manned lunar mission. This task will focus on verifying three core contents.

One is the spacecraft life support system, where astronauts will test key functions such as breathable air generation and radiation protection during flight to ensure that the system can sustain astronaut survival in deep space environments for a long time; The second is manual control capability. After the spacecraft separates from the upper stage of the rocket, astronauts will manually control the spacecraft for close range maneuvering tests, accumulating experience for key operations such as lunar orbit docking and lunar module separation in the future; The third is the communication and navigation system, which tests the navigation accuracy of the spacecraft after leaving the GPS coverage range, as well as the stability of long-distance communication with the ground control center. The success of these tests will directly determine the feasibility of subsequent manned lunar missions.