Everything you need to know about NASA's Artemis II mission, bringing humans back to the moon

"It's been more than half a century since astronauts last stepped onto the moon. Now, NASA's Artemis II will return four humans to its vicinity in a 10-day lunar loop that lifts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center as early as February 8. An Orion spacecraft will carry NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, some 230,000 miles to the far side of the moon-farther from Earth than anyone has traveled."

"NASA's Artemis program, along with private and international partners, aims to return people to the moon for scientific exploration, establish a lunar economy, and ultimately pave the way for crewed missions to Mars. An initial uncrewed lunar flyby, Artemis I, provided a proof of concept in 2002. This mission adopts a more human-centric approach, evaluating Orion's life support systems in situ and gathering additional data on how spaceflight affects the human body."

More than fifty years after astronauts last walked on the moon, Artemis II will send four crew on a 10-day lunar loop launching from Kennedy Space Center as early as February 8. Orion will carry Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen about 230,000 miles to the far side, farther from Earth than any humans have traveled. The mission uses a free-return trajectory to slingshot Orion back for splashdown off San Diego. The flight will evaluate Orion life-support systems in situ, deploy solar arrays, perform system and docking checkouts, gather biomedical data on spaceflight effects, and demonstrate higher SLS thrust than Apollo-era rockets.

Read at Fast Company