Godspeed, Artemis II
With the translunar injection burn now complete, the crew of Integrity are on a free-return trajectory that will take them through the sphere of influence of the Moon. It’s taken a long time to get here — far longer than it should’ve taken — but we’re here now. It’s been 54 years since anyone has flown a crewed spacecraft on a translunar trajectory, which arguably makes this the most important spaceflight mission of my life thus far.
If the United States is able to achieve the goals they’ve laid out with the Artemis program, this mission will be nothing more than a footnote, in the grand scheme of things. A precursor to our return to the lunar surface. That doesn’t make it any less awesome, in the same way that Apollo 8 was awesome in its own right, even if popular opinion of the Apollo program only really remembers Apollo 11.
It’s a good time to be a spaceflight fan. I can’t wait to see our version of Earthrise. Follow along with the mission via NASA’s live stream on YouTube.