NASA aims to launch its first crewed Moon mission to the Moon in more than half a century in February

The SLS rocket with the Orion capsule, before the launch of the Artemis 1 mission, in September 2022. This was confirmed on Tuesday by Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA’s acting deputy administrator, during a press conference on the Artemis 2 mission. Artemis 2 is the first crewed mission of the U.S. space program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon 50 years after the Apollo program. If Artemis 2 succeeds, it will mark 54 years since NASA’s last crewed Moon mission, Apollo 17 in 1972. NASA plans to send at least one more mission, Artemis 4, to the Moon to deploy a space station that will orbit the satellite.