The Artemis II mission, which is the first crewed lunar expedition in 54 years, successfully launched at 6:35 p.m. Eastern Time. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft, took off from Launch Complex 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center located in Cape Canaveral, Florida. A crew of four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover—will embark on a journey around the Moon, with the mission set to last ten days before returning to Earth. Looking ahead, astronauts are planned to land on the Moon during the fourth Artemis mission in 2028. The last crewed lunar mission prior to Artemis was Apollo 17, which took place in 1972 when American astronauts made their sixth visit to the lunar surface, a record that still stands today. Are additional missions to the Moon necessary? Supporters argue that it serves as a vital base for future space exploration, while others believe the focus should remain on Earth.
Informational material. 18+.
