Artemis II astronauts see mission as ‘setting the stage’ for deeper space travel

The astronauts, who were visiting Ottawa Tuesday, are scheduled to orbit the moon late next year as part of the 10-day-long Artemis II mission.

The three Americans and one Canadian who will be the first astronauts to travel around the moon in more than 50 years say they see their mission as “setting the stage” for deeper space travel.

London, Ont., native Jeremy Hansen, Christina Hammock Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman are scheduled to orbit the moon late next year as part of the Artemis II mission. Hansen, 47, will be the first non-American to leave Earth’s orbit when the mission blasts off in November 2024.

Humans last visited the moon in December 1972 at the end of NASA’s Apollo program. If successful, the astronauts will not only end that drought, but they say the mission will also end up being pivotal for future space flight.

“We are setting the stage for humanity to go to Mars … and we’re all very aware of that,” Glover, 46, the mission’s pilot, said in an interview with The Morning Show, hosted by Jeff McArthur and Carolyn MacKenzie.

“Everything we do is going to be making sure this vehicle is ready to dock to and get people into another spacecraft that can land on the moon. But the objectives of this mission are to make sure that humans can live in Orion.”

NASA’s Orion spacecraft is the cornerstone of the Artemis missions. Orion was used in Artemis I, an unmanned flight, that travelled on a 1.4-million-mile journey beyond the moon, returning to Earth after 25 days last December.

That mission took place to ensure safe re-entry, descent, splashdown and recovery so NASA is ready for Artemis II when a crew is onboard. The goal of Artemis II is to establish a path for a long-term scientific and human presence on the moon, NASA says.

The astronauts, who were visiting Ottawa Tuesday, will orbit Earth after blastoff to test Orion’s systems before rocketing to the moon. They will do a figure eight around it before their momentum brings them home. The mission will take approximately 10 days. The return trip alone will take about four days.