United States: On Thursday, President Joe Biden met the four astronauts assigned to fly around the moon for the first time in 50 years at the White House. During the meeting, he showed off a moon rock on display in the Oval Office that was collected in the Apollo era.
Journey to the Moon: Awaiting 2024
The Artemis II crew, consisting of one Canadian and two Americans, was promised to welcome them at the White House. After that, they were named to the mission earlier this year. They also met with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“It’s been really nice to shake their hands and tell them thank you for their leadership and making it possible for us to have this amazing journey,” said pilot Victor Glover.
The four astronauts will launch from Kennedy Space Center atop a Space Launch System rocket to become the first humans to pilot NASA’s Orion capsule, hopefully by late 2024. They will fly around the moon and return directly to Earth without landing or even entering lunar orbit. This is a prelude to two more people landing on the moon a year later.
“As the crew, we don’t even think about the date,” said commander Reid Wiseman. “We will go when NASA and the vehicle are ready to fly,” according to the report by the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, the crew is getting ready. To learn how to get up and back safely, including how to exit when they return to Earth, they collaborate with Mission Control and use simulators. They will practice “bobbing around” in a capsule in the Pacific Ocean during a dress rehearsal in February.
This moon crew is the first to come from outside the United States. It is also the first crew in NASA’s new moon program, named Artemis after Apollo’s twin sister from mythology. In a much-anticipated dress rehearsal, an empty Orion capsule orbited the moon and returned towards the end of last year.
In August, the astronauts received their first glance at their vessel. However, research into the heat shield of the capsule may cause them to miss their flight. The unmanned test mission around the moon last year resulted in unanticipated charring and material loss from the heat shield at the bottom of the capsule. The heat shield is designed to insulate the capsule from the tremendous heat of re-entry.
Ageless Moon Rock: A 3.9 Billion-Year Journey
According to mission specialist Christina Koch, Biden mentioned a speech John F. Kennedy delivered on the moon mission in 1962, and he mentioned the portion where Kennedy said the objective was a challenge and “one we are unwilling to postpone.”
During the Apollo mission, NASA dispatched 24 astronauts to the moon from 1968 to 1972. Twelve of them landed. Except for Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who closed off the moon-landing period alongside the late Gene Cernan, all were military-trained male test pilots.
NASA loaned the moon rock on exhibit in the Oval Office, Lunar Sample 76015,143. Schmitt and Cernan collected it in 1972. The rock is estimated to be 3.9 billion years old and weighs little less than a pound.