Jeremy Hansen, a 49-year-old astronaut from London, Ontario, is preparing for a groundbreaking mission. He will fly in a wide loop around the backside of the moon. As the primary astronaut for NASA’s Artemis II mission, Hansen expressed his enthusiasm for this journey, which he believes is significant for humanity.
The mission is scheduled to launch as soon as February. Hansen and his crew sad to spend about 10 days flying around the moon. He’ll be joined by Jenni Gibbons, a 37-year-old from Calgary, who will act as his backup and replace him on missions when needed. As Hansen looks forward to the next mission, he hopes you’ll be as interested in the moon as he is. After years of preparation, this mission is finally approaching its launch.
Speaking to reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Hansen was animated—deserves to be. He highlighted the importance of human exploration beyond Earth, stating, “I’m actually pretty pumped to see that, because, you know, in just a few weeks you’re going to see four humans fly around the moon, and if we’re doing that now, imagine what we can do next. I’m pretty pumped to see that come to fruition.”
NASA’s Artemis II mission will fly with the crewed Orion spacecraft. It will be sent there atop the roughly 200-foot tall, immensely powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. This unique rocket has been developed and tested to launch the Orion spacecraft as it explores beyond low Earth orbit. Plan for the rollout of the crawlerway rocket to take around 12 hours. Before the month is out, Hansen and the full mission team will conduct a full wet dress rehearsal at the space center. They’ll do a dry run of the launch itself to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
Hansen emphasized the collaborative efforts of his team, stating, “We’re working on lunar surface stuff now, so we’ll just bring that workforce to bear to meet joint collective objectives.” This shows the seriousness of NASA’s intent to pursue the advancement of human exploration in space, alongside its other missions.
After their historic lunar adventure, Hansen and the crew will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. More broadly, this mission represents a new era of deeper and exciting advances in space exploration. Above all, it underlines how important international collaboration is for having bold aspirations outside of our planet.
