artemis ii (13. 315)

Any other day, a crewed mission to lunar orbit would be the only news story, but given the world of American hubris and hegemony, with wars in the Middle and Far East, Trump threatening to withdraw from NATO, the climate catastrophe, etc, etc, the awe-inspiring achievement that the world could collectively take pride in is overshadowed in the headlines. Whilst not landing on the Moon for this iteration, the capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, if all goes according to plan, will take four individuals the farthest anyone has been from Earth, tracing a figure-eight around the Moon and back in a ten day journey, the flyby the first foray beyond low Earth orbit since 1972. The Apollo XIII and X missions entered geostationary orbit around the Moon but Artemis will assume a free return trajectory, similar to Apollo XIII. Among the historical firsts in store for the crew include the first woman, person of colour and in Canadian Space Agency astronaut the first non-US citizen to leave low Earth orbit. The landing mission is currently scheduled for 2028. Watch the countdown live at NPR at the link up top.