Explainer: What’s Next for NASA After Artemis II? A Mission to Test Lunar Docking and Mars Tech | National News
NASA’s most recent spaceflight mission, Artemis II, is now in the home stretch of its 10-day journey. Artemis II on Monday night began its return trip home after successfully completing a loop around the moon. The crew journeyed 252,756 miles from Earth, setting a record for the farthest distance humans have traveled into space. The Artemis II crew is scheduled for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday. Assuming its success when it touches down, NASA will launch its next mission – Artemis III – next year. What Is Artemis III? Artemis III is the midpoint of the planned missions for NASA’s Artemis program, currently a five-pronged space initiative to return to the moon with the intention of establishing a permanent base there. The first of the Artemis missions was launched in November 2022, sending an uncrewed test flight on a 1.4 million-mile journey around the moon and back to Earth. Artemis III is scheduled to launch its crew in an Orion spacecraft on top of a …
