The Artemis program with which NASA will once again put manned missions on the lunar surface, and eventually on Mars, will show humanity things never seen before, according to what the new head of the agency’s astronauts said this Saturday in an interview with EFE American spaceman, Joseph Acabá.
“This is a great moment in history, with the Artemis program we are going to do things that have never been done before,” said Acabá, who with his appointment announced on February 2 became the first person of Hispanic origin to direct the Astronaut Office of the Johnson Space Center in Houston (Texas).
As the person in charge of managing the resources and operations of the astronauts, who currently number about 40, Acabá will supervise the selection of the crews for the next Artemis missions, after the first one returned to Earth last December after a mission of 25 days in which it orbited the Moon.
Artemis 1 traveled without astronauts, but Artemis 2, scheduled for 2024, will be the first manned mission of this program and, as Acabá pointed out, NASA hopes to be able to present the three American members (the fourth crew member will be from the agency Canadian Space Agency) over the next two months.
“Those we choose, we know they will do a great job, not only in the mission but representing the astronauts and the United States,” said Acabá, a geologist by profession who has accumulated 306 days in space since he was selected by NASA in 2004.
Facing Artemis 3, the first to put astronauts on the lunar surface since the end of the Apollo program in 1972, the US space agency seeks to form a diverse crew that includes the first woman and the first person of color to reach the Moon.
INSPIRATION, A PART OF THE MISSION
The veteran astronaut, born in California in 1967 and of Puerto Rican origin, is aware of the fascination aroused by space flights, which lead students to “dream big”, and, in this sense, he is convinced that the dazzling will be greater with the next Artemis missions, which “will be bigger than anything we’ve seen before.”
“Personally, my interest in space began watching the Apollo missions with my grandparents, and I hope that when young students see the Artemis missions their imaginations will spark their imagination,” Acabá confessed, adding that “inspiration is another big part of a mission”.
The current effervescence in the aerospace industry has undoubtedly been fueled by flights operated by private companies, with SpaceX as the leading actor thanks to the contract it has with NASA to send missions to the International Space Station (ISS), a sector which is expected to increase with the entry of new firms such as Boeing.
Helping in this sort of “commercialization of space” is one of NASA’s responsibilities, as Acabá said, and although there are now only a few selected by the space agency for joint projects, “the goal is to make space accessible to all.” .
“It will happen, the space will be more available in the future,” he said.
EDUCATION AND TEAMWORK
The astronaut, who in his new position at the US space agency replaces Drew Feustel, who has been interim head of the office since Reid Wiseman left the post at the end of 2022, does not hesitate to affirm that being in space has been a one of the greatest experiences of his life.
During his time as an astronaut, Acabá carried out three space missions, the first of which, STS-119, was in 2009 and aboard the Discovery shuttle, with which he delivered the fourth pair of solar panel wings to the ISS and later, a Once in the orbital laboratory, he performed two spacewalks.
His next two missions, in 2012 and 2018, were as a flight engineer aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft for Space Station Expeditions 31/32 and 53/54.
Since then, the UC Santa Barbara geology graduate has supported the astronaut office in various roles, including director of Russian operations and head of the Vehicle Integration Test Office.
He points out that an important requirement to be an astronaut is to have a degree in higher education, which can be of a wide spectrum.
“We are looking for people who are capable of working as a team,” he assured.