NASA’s Artemis II set to voyage to the Moon with four crew after 53 years

After 53 years of NASA’s manned mission to the Moon, its Artemis II is set to lift off with four crew on a voyage of ten days without stops, orbiting the Moon, and will splash down in the Pacific, if all goes well as planned.

The towering Space Launch System rocket, standing 32 storeys tall, is poised for a Wednesday evening launch, and officials expressed guarded confidence that both hardware readiness and weather conditions are aligning favourably for departure.

The Orion capsule will spend a day orbiting Earth, after which it will ignite its engines to propel the crew towards the Moon, executing a rapid flyby rather than a landing, and then slingshotting back to Earth in a tightly choreographed trajectory designed to test deep-space systems.

The mission, however, had endured successive setbacks, as hydrogen fuel leaks postponed the February schedule, and a clogged helium pressurisation line later compelled engineers to return the vehicle to the hangar. The U.S.–Canadian crew arrived on Friday, signalling the final phase of countdown operations.

Pilot Victor Glover emphasised that the mission should inspire younger generations, while also expressing hope that such milestones would eventually become routine, and humanity’s exploration of the cosmos would transcend symbolic “firsts” to become a shared human endeavour.