A more political and economic project than a scientific one, the American Artemis program of manned flights to the Moon intends to prepare distant missions to Mars. Switzerland is also in the running
The Orion spacecraft, with its cabin for 4 astronauts at the front and the European service module at the rear. © NASA/ESA/Computer graphics
Published on 16.08.2022
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Artemis » Fifty years after the last two Apollo expeditions, in April and December 1972, the Moon is once again at close range.
On August 29 – or in September if postponed – the first mission of NASA’s Artemis program will carry an Orion capsule around our nocturnal star for an unmanned test flight. A first manned flight should follow in 2024, while the great return of a crew on lunar soil is planned for 2025.
The challenge of Artemis I promises to be considerable for NASA. This is indeed the first flight of the heavy launcher Space Launch System (SLS), developed since 2011 and whose unit cost is 2.2 billion dollars. This world record rocket will take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, wearing the habitable capsule