LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. –  54 years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched Apollo 17, the final Apollo and last manned mission to the moon, beginning a long period of less ambitious space exploration. 

On Wednesday, April 1, the moon mission hiatus was broken as NASA launched the Artemis II, the first manned Artemis flight that is set to test the Orion spacecraft and other technology that will potentially land astronauts on the moon in 2028. 

The spacecraft carries four astronauts. Reid Wiseman, a Baltimore native and Navy veteran, is the mission commander. Victor Glover is the pilot of the Orion spacecraft and a Southern California born Navy Aviator. Christina Koch is an engineer turned astronaut from Michigan who is serving as a mission specialist. Lastly, Jeremy Hansen, the second mission specialist, is a fighter pilot from Ontario, Canada, who will be the only crew member making his first trip to space on the mission. 

On April 1, these four astronauts embarked on their 10 day mission around the moon. They will orbit Earth twice in order to test life support systems and the manual handling of Orion.

The crew will then start the main engine to build speed and travel faster than any human has before, to embark on a 230,000 mile endeavor to the moon. This portion of the journey will take four days and the crew will test the Deep Space Network for communication and perform medical drills. 

On day six of their mission, they will face the backside of the moon, an area no human has seen before, where they will take images to bring back to Earth. During this stage of the mission, the flight crew will lose complete communication with Earth for 40-45 minutes as the mass of the moon blocks radio signals. While many would be nervous about the lack of communication, the astronauts feel hopeful about this moment. 

“It’s when we will be closest to the moon, farthest from the Earth, but it also is a human moment and I would love for us to have a moment of togetherness,” Glover, the pilot of the Orion, said in an interview with 60 Minutes. 

The crew will then experience a four day flight home as they use the gravity of the moon to propel them back to Earth. They will prepare for their landing and use parachutes to splash down in the Pacific Ocean around April 11.

The Artemis II mission is nothing short of historical as it will not only be sending the first people to the moon in 50 years, but it will also carry the first African American, first woman and first Canadian on a journey around Earth’s natural satellite. The crew will also be deeper into space than any human before and will be among the few who have seen the far side of the moon. 

In addition to the historical nature of this mission, it is certainly going to return with new scientific and technological revelations that will assist in future space exploration as it tests key components and efficiency of the Orion spacecraft ahead of Artemis III, a mission planned to land humans on the moon in 2028. 

This new Artemis generation of space exploration serves to inspire today’s youth to get interested in the endeavor of space exploration. Families and space fans lined the surrounding areas of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida before the launch, displaying how these modern day missions will show children the wonders of space research that have been lacking since 1972. 

The historic Artemis II will be an exciting mission to follow over the next week and a half as astronauts make their way around the moon and brave the vast expanse of space, per their slogan, “for all humanity.”