Why in the News
NASA is targeting 6 February for the launch of Artemis II, its first crewed lunar mission under the Artemis programme, marking humanity’s return to lunar spaceflight after more than 50 years since Apollo 17.
What is Artemis II
- First crewed mission of the Artemis programme
- Sends astronauts around the Moon, not a lunar landing
- Mission duration about 10 days
- Objective is to test human rated deep space systems
Artemis Programme Context
- Artemis I: Conducted in August 2022. First integrated flight of Orion and SLS
- Artemis III: Scheduled around 2027. Aims to land astronauts at the Moon’s south pole.
Prelims Pointers
- Artemis II is a crew flyby mission, not a landing mission
- First humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit since 1972
- Orion uses a free return trajectory
- Artemis programme aims at Moon to Mars pathway
- International participation includes Canada
- Splashdown planned in Pacific Ocean
| [2025] Consider the following space missions:
I. Axiom-4 II. SpaDeX III. Gaganyaan How many of the space missions given above encourage and support microgravity research? (a) Only one (b) Only two (c) All the three (d) None |
Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024
