After Artemis 2 launches and before the crew sets course for the Moon, the crew will spend a day or so carrying out systems checks in Earth orbit. During this stage, the crew will also test their ability to rendezvous with the SLS’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, which will serve as valuable practice for future docking maneuvers needed in later Artemis missions. The spacecraft’s orbit around Earth will be highly elliptical, ranging in altitude from about 115 miles (185 kilometers) to 46,000 miles (74,000 km) above Earth’s surface.

Once they receive approval to set course for the Moon, the four members of the Artemis 2 crew will embark on humanity’s first trip to the Moon’s neighborhood since 1972.

Artemis 2 will not land on or orbit the Moon, but will instead use several lunar-destination burns and course corrections to achieve a so-called free-return trajectory. This approach will bring the craft to within about 6,400 miles (10,000 km) of the Moon’s farside — and allow it to return to Earth even if the craft experiences an engine failure. The free-return trajectory will form a figure-eight around Earth and the Moon, and the Artemis 2 mission is expected to last about 10 days.

Axiom Space company has been actively engaged in designing and rigorously testing cutting-edge spacesuits called Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU).

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The Axion team has been working closely with NASA to ensure that the Artemis III spacesuit meets all of the mission’s criteria.

“The AxEMU spacesuit will be ready to meet the complex challenges of the lunar south pole and help grow our understanding of the Moon in order to enable a long-term presence there,” mentioned the company’s release.

The design of this advanced spacesuit aims to provide enhanced mobility, improved protection, and seamless integration with essential scientific tools for lunar exploration studies.

“Artemis is a long-term exploration campaign to conduct science at the Moon with astronauts and prepare for future human missions to Mars,” said Amit Kshatriya.

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In an unfortunate setback to NASA’s Artemis program, the space agency announced this morning that the Artemis II mission, which was originally scheduled for November of this year, has been postponed until September 2025, which also pushes back the Artemis III mission to September 2026. The Artemis II mission, which is slated to be the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, is still slated to carry astronauts Reid Wiseman (NASA), Victor Glover (NASA), Chrsitina Koch (NASA), and Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency), with the crew still involved with heavy training as they prepare for the historic mission.

This news unfortunately comes after NASA announced the United Arab Emirates will be providing the airlock for the Lunar Gateway, which will be space station in orbit around the Moon used to ferry astronauts to and from the lunar surface.

The reason for the delays is due to further testing of hardware and spacecraft systems to ensure the safety of astronauts on future missions, which includes addressing concerns from the Orion capsule found during the Artemis I mission in November 2022, along with concerns about Orion’s heat shield, which teams discovered pieces of char layers that were lost during re-entry, and investigations are still ongoing. The heat shield is responsible for protecting the Orion capsule from the extreme temperatures during Earth re-entry.

NASA’s efforts to return astronauts to the moon have been delayed — again.

In a major step towards returning humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972, the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently announced they will be providing the airlock for NASA’s Lunar Gateway, which is the planned space station that will be in orbit around the Moon and responsible for ferrying future astronauts to and from the lunar surface.

Artist’s rendition of the Lunar Gateway (left) and a potential future airlock provided by the UAE (right). (Credit: NASA)

“The United States and the United Arab Emirates are marking a historic moment in our nations’ collaboration in space, and the future of human space exploration,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “We are in a new era of exploration through Artemis – strengthened by the peaceful and international exploration of space. The UAE’s provision of the airlock to Gateway will allow astronauts to conduct groundbreaking science in deep space and prepare to one day send humanity to Mars.”

As a result, the company is now racing to make the most of the situation, though a full Moon landing is now sounding more or less impossible.

“We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time,” the company wrote.

It’s a sad state of affairs. In the most recent update, the company shared the first photo the lander snapped in space, showing a creased layer of insulation, which may have contributed to the spacecraft’s ongoing issues.

A US spacecraft carrying human remains launched on Monday in a bid to become the first private mission to land on the moon.

If it succeeds, Peregrine will also be the first US mission in more than 50 years to complete a lunar touchdown and could pave the way for commercial space services, such as lunar burials.

“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for 16 years,” John Thornton, CEO of Astrobiotic, the company behind the lander, said after the launch. “We are on our way to the moon.”