Houston, prepare to shoot the moon

For the first time in more than 50 years, humans are getting ready to head back toward the Moon onboard the Orion spacecraft.

NASA’s Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch April 1, and if everything lines up, tomorrow four astronauts will be heading farther from Earth than any crew has gone in decades. It’s the kind of thing we haven’t really seen since the days when the world stopped to watch grainy black-and-white footage of boots pressing into lunar dust.

This time, they won’t be landing however, as the plan is to loop around the far side of the Moon and come home, about a 10-day trip. In a lot of ways, this is the first real step back into deep space.

The mission is about testing everything where it actually matters, not just on paper, not just in simulations, but out there, where there’s no room for guesswork. It’s a full run with people on board, making sure the systems do what they’re supposed to when you’re that far from home.

The roughly 10-day mission will begin with the Space Launch System sending Orion into orbit, where the crew will carry out a series of checks before heading toward the Moon. From there, Artemis II will loop around the far side, briefly losing contact with Earth as the crew takes photos and observations, before using the Moon’s gravity to help guide them back home for re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific.

The crew includes commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canada’s own Jeremy Hansen, a name that might carry a bit more weight up here than most.

The four astronauts will be flying aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which will launch on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in what is essentially a test run with real stakes.

It’s not just another mission, NASA’s Artemis 2 feels like a restart.

For a lot of people, especially those who grew up hearing about Apollo from their parents or grandparents, space exploration has always felt like something that used to happen from another time.

Now, for the first time in a long while, it feels like we’re part of it again.

And tomorrow when that rocket lifts off, it won’t just be about going around the Moon, It’ll be about seeing how far we’re willing to go, again.