NASA is going over data from its Orion crew capsule before declaring the mission a success. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville is managing the spacecraft and the new rocket that launched it to Earth orbit. The Orion will be taken to San Diego following its splashdown. After that, the capsule will be transported overland back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Vanessa Wyche says the next big step will be naming the astronauts who will fly on Artemis-two.
“There are still things we need to be learned as we get the spacecraft back to Florida. But our intent is, and if all is still go, and everything looks good, we will name the crew in early 2023,” said Wyche.
The next blastoff is scheduled for 2024 and carry those astronauts around the Moon. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says the naming of the crew for Artemis two will be a big milestone…
“I think that’s going to be an immediate story,” Nelson speculated. “And the American people, just like the original seven astronauts in the Mercury days, are going to want to know about those astronauts.”
The astronauts aboard Artemis three are scheduled to make the first lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. This week marks fifty years since that final manned moon mission of Project Apollo…
