WATCH LIVE: Historic NASA manned mission to the moon set to launch Wednesday afternoon

NASA reports all systems are go as of Wednesday morning for the launch of a historic crewed mission to the moon later in the day that, if successful, will mark the first time humans have traveled to Earth’s sole satellite since the final Apollo mission in the early ‘70s.

The massive Space Launch System rocket, which successfully completed an unmanned flight in 2022, will power the Orion capsule and its four-member crew on a mission aiming to travel over 250,000 miles into space on an arc that takes the spaceship and its crew about 5,000 miles beyond the moon before returning to Earth.

If the Artemis II mission flyby goes to plan, NASA intends to launch the SLS/Orion package on a mission in 2028 that would include a landing on the lunar surface.

The rocket, poised for launch at 4:24 p.m. MDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, could be seen glowing in the morning light amid partly cloudy conditions on NASA’s live stream ahead of the planned afternoon blast off. Watch the final preparations and launch here:

Artemis II gets set to blast off just weeks after new NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced accelerated plans, fueled by a $20 billion budget over the next seven years, to build a lunar base near the moon’s south pole. The revised strategy aims to launch two moon missions a year to accelerate the moon base construction and set the table for a future manned mission to Mars.

“This revised, step-by-step approach to learn, to build muscle memory, to bring down risk and gain confidence is exactly how NASA achieved the near impossible in the 1960s,” he said in a late March announcement, referring to the agency’s Apollo program. “But this time, the goal is not flags and footprints. This time, the goal is to stay.”

Before a crew heads to the moon for a surface landing attempt, however, a mission planned for next year aims to test out the process of docking the Orion capsule with lunar landers currently being developed in separate competitive tracks by SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Historic mission with a historic crew

The Artemis II crew includes three NASA astronauts including mission commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch as well as mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency. The team has been training for almost three years for the mission and looks quite different from the astronaut corps of the Apollo program, which was composed of white, male test pilots recruited from U.S. military branches.

The Artemis II crew, collectively, represents the first woman, first person of color and first non-American to travel to the moon.

Koch already holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, according to an Associated Press report. During her 328-day mission at the International Space Station spanning 2019 and 2020, she took part in the first all-female spacewalk.

Glover, a Navy test pilot, was the first Black astronaut to live and work aboard the space station in 2020 and 2021, per AP. He also was one of the first astronauts to launch with SpaceX.

The Canadian Space Agency’s Hansen, a former fighter pilot, is the lone space rookie. Artemis II mission commander Wiseman is a retired Navy captain who lived aboard the space station in 2014 and later headed NASA’s astronaut corps. They range in age from 47 to 50.

How to get from here to the moon

Here’s a breakdown from NASA of the Artemis II mission:

Launch- Astronauts lift off from launch pad 39B, Kennedy Space Center, scheduled for 4:24 p.m. MDT on April 1.

Jettison boosters, fairings, launch abort equipment- As the the rocket leaves Earth’s atmosphere, its solid rocket boosters will be discarded once they have been emptied of fuel, followed by the panels that protect the Orion service module, and the launch abort system that would pull Orion and the crew to safety in the case of early ascent emergencies.

Core stage main engine cutoff- On reaching space, the SLS’s core stage engines shut down, and the core stage separates from the upper stage and Orion.

Perigee raise maneuver- When Orion reaches the apogee, or highest point, of its early, sub-orbital trajectory, the upper stage will fire its engine to raise its perigee — the lowest point of its orbit – to a safe altitude of 100 miles. Once this burn is complete, Orion and the upper stage will be in a stable low-Earth orbit.

Apogee raise burn to high Earth orbit- The upper stage will fire again roughly an hour later, this time at the perigee of its orbit, to continue raising Orion into a high Earth orbit. This begins a roughly 23-hour checkout of the spacecraft, while Orion and its astronauts are still relatively close to Earth.

Orion separation from upper stage- Once the upper stage has done its job, it will separate from Orion and be repurposed as a target for a proximity operations demonstration test — an opportunity for the crew to verify it can safely pilot Orion in manual mode.

Orion upper stage burn- Begins high Earth orbit checkout. Life support, exercise and habitation equipment evaluations.

Perigee raise burn- At the end of the first flight day, the crew will be awakened to perform an additional engine firing to get Orion into the correct orbital geometry for its translunar injection burn on day 2.

Trans-lunar injection by Orion’s main engine- This is the last major engine firing of the mission and one that propels Orion on a path toward the moon and sets it on the free-return trajectory that will ultimately bring crew back to Earth for splashdown. Though only two days into the mission, it essentially doubles as Orion’s deorbit burn, as well.

Transit to the moon- Three smaller outbound trajectory correction burns using Orion’s orbital maneuvering system engine over the course of the next three days will ensure the spacecraft stays on target for its journey around the Moon. Just before the crew goes to sleep on day 5, they’ll enter the lunar sphere of influence, where the pull of the moon’s gravity will become stronger than the pull of the Earth’s gravity.

Lunar flyby- Exactly how close the Artemis II crew will fly to the moon will depend on when it launches. The moon will be in a different spot for each of the possible launch dates, and the exact distance will change accordingly, ranging from 4,000 to 6,000 miles above the lunar surface. That is farther from the moon than Artemis I’s 80 miles above the surface, but still tens of thousands of miles closer than any human has been in more than 50 years. At this distance the moon will appear to the crew to be about the size of a basketball held at arm’s length.

The closest the crew will come to the lunar surface will be when Orion flies behind the moon. At that point, the crew will lose communication with the Earth for anywhere from 30-50 minutes, depending on when they launched. During that time, they will be taking photos and video of the moon’s far side and making observations to be shared with scientists on the ground after they regain communication.

Trans-Earth return- After Orion swings around the far side of the moon and exits the lunar sphere of influence, its fuel-efficient free return trajectory will harness the Earth-moon gravity field to pull Orion back to Earth naturally.

Splashdown- Once Orion has made it through the heat of reentry, the cover that has been protecting its forward bay is cast off to make way for the parachutes to deploy and begin slowing Orion down. Two drogue parachutes, each 23 feet in diameter, will unfurl at an altitude of 25,000 feet and slow the capsule down to 307 mph. At 9,500 feet, three 11-foot-wide pilot parachutes will deploy to pull the final three main parachutes. The 116-foot-wide main parachutes slow Orion from about 130 mph to just 17 mph for splashdown. Orion is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego on April 10.

Utah’s role in NASA’s return to the moon

NASA says its SLS launch system stands at 322 feet high — taller than the Statue of Liberty — and weighs 5.75 million pounds when loaded with fuel.

During launch and ascent, the SLS produces 8.8 million pounds of maximum thrust, 15% more thrust than the Saturn V rockets that propelled Apollo astronauts to the moon.

Utah-based aerospace companies and experts have long played a role in NASA space missions, and the Artemis program is no exception. The massive solid fuel booster rockets that provide some 75% of the SLS initial thrust were developed and tested in Utah by Northrop Grumman in partnership with NASA.