NASA prepares for landmark crewed lunar mission after five decades

With its second Artemis mission, NASA is getting ready to send the first team of men to the moon in more than 53 years. This is an important test trip for humanity’s broader lunar aspirations as the US tries to regain its leadership in space amid growing competition from China.

On Wednesday, April 1, three US astronauts and one Canadian astronaut will launch from NASA’s Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket. They will spend ten days on a test trip that will take them around the moon and back, going farther into space than humans have ever been before.

The mission is the first crewed test trip in NASA’s Artemis program, which is the US’s main plan to start regular flights to the moon. Since 2012, it has cost at least $93 billion. Since Apollo 17 in 1972, no one has set foot on the moon’s surface. NASA plans to do it again in 2028 near the harsh lunar south pole.

The US is the only country to have sent people to another celestial body. The Apollo program’s six lunar landings were made possible by competition with the Soviet Union.

US officials have been paying closer attention to China lately. China is a strong technological competitor that has made significant progress in its own lunar program in recent years, with a series of robotic landings and a goal of placing its own crew on the surface by 2030.