Artemis II- Returning To The Moon

March 2026

Guest Author: Dr Eileen O'Hely

Astrophysicist, Author & Science Communicator

In the early 1960’s, American president John F. Kennedy made a landmark speech declaring “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth” This was achieved with NASA’s Apollo program, a planned series of 20 missions, each one more ambitious than the last, that would test spacecraft and astronaut capabilities in a stepped approach. The first lunar landing was not planned until mid-way through the program. With the hard work of 400,000 engineers and support staff, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin achieved this historic lunar landing with Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. There was another member of the Apollo 11 crew, Michael Collins who served as the command module pilot. While his crewmates were on the Lunar surface, he stayed behind in the Command Module orbiting the moon alone, and serving as their only link back to Earth. In doing so he experiencing 48 minutes of absolute silence and loss of radio contact, and is often referred to as "the loneliest man in history".

Apollo 11 Crew- Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot

The following year, due to changing priorities and reductions in funding, three missions were cut from the program. The final lunar mission was Apollo 17, which departed the moon on December 14, 1972. A total of 12 people, all American men, have walked on the Moon. These historic lunar surface explorations occurred across six missions between July 1969 and December 1972. Humans have not set foot there since.

 

Apollo 11 Lunar Landing 1969

Now the space program is hotting up again. To date, the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan have successfully landed uncrewed spacecraft on the Moon. Even Australia is getting involved, with the addition of Gold Coast upstart Gilmour Space Technologies achieving lift-off with their own in-house built rocket mid-2025. (They also achieved an unexpectedly early touch-down 14 seconds later, but it’s still progress.) The goals of this new Space Race of the modern day are to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, and to eventually fly humans to Mars.

NASA’s new program is called Artemis, designed to return humans to the Moon, fittingly named after the twin sister of Apollo. Like Apollo, the Artemis missions are also using a stepped approach to achieve “boots on the Moon” by 2028. 

The first mission flew in November 2022, named Artemis I. It was an uncrewed mission that tested the new Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. It also tested the new orange flight suit warn by the mannequin Commander Moonikin Campos. Two other mannequin torsos were also on board. Both were made of materials designed to simulate human tissue. One was covered by a radiation protection vest, while the other wasn’t. Each torso had 5,600 sensors to monitor how well the vest would protect human astronauts on their journey. 

Artemis I Trajectory Map 2022

Fast forward three years. Based on the information gathered during the first mission, the vehicles and systems have been fine-tuned, and the time has come for Artemis II to fly with astronauts on board. Well, almost. 

There are only certain times of the month when a launch window for the mission exists. This launch window lasts about 120 minutes per day for selected dates soon after full moon. Rather than flying directly to the Moon, the Orion capsule will remain in high Earth orbit for further tests and checks before its trans-lunar injection burn, sending it towards the Moon. The craft will then rely on the Moon’s gravity to redirect it back to Earth, with the whole journey taking 10 days. This uses less fuel, meaning a lighter and more sustainable spacecraft.

Orion is powered by large solar arrays. For these to work effectively, the craft cannot be in darkness for more than 90 minutes, otherwise it will lose power which would endanger the four astronauts on board: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. Just as the Earth eclipsed the Moon on March 3, mission planners time the launch window to avoid this happening to the spacecraft.

The Artemis II crew- Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist; Victor Glover, pilot; Reid Wiseman, commander; and Christina Hammock Koch, mission specialist.

Prior to launch, the rocket is rolled from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launchpad, where further tests are done on the vehicle. These include fuelling the rocket, otherwise referred to as a wet dress rehearsal. During the wet dress rehearsal in advance of the initial February launch window, there were hydrogen leaks detected. The launch needed to be delayed until these were fixed. Some fixes were done on the launchpad, but fixing a subsequent helium issue meant the rocket had to be rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for the technicians to work on it, meaning it would not be ready in time for the March launch window either.

At the end of February, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced a change to the Artemis program. Citing that a multi-year gap between launches is not ideal for the program, Artemis III is now programmed to fly sooner than expected in 2027. This mission will no longer land on the Moon, but will test some docking manoeuvres in orbit, similar to Apollo 9. Then, there will be not one, but two lunar landings planned for 2028: Artemis IV and V. 

One of the future Artemis landing missions will have an Australian aboard – a 20 kilogram lunar rover called Roo-ver which will explore the surface of the Moon.