A crewed lunar exploration spacecraft carrying humans toward the Moon for the first time in half a century has been successfully launched. If the crew returns safely in ten days, humanity could witness the historic moment of humans setting foot on the lunar surface for the first time in 58 years as early as next year.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on July 1 (local time) that it successfully launched the crewed lunar exploration rocket Artemis 2. The rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. Eastern Time and entered high Earth orbit. This marks the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 orbited the Moon in December 1972 — a gap of approximately 53 years.
Artemis 2 consists of the 98-meter-tall Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion capsule. The four crew members aboard Orion will travel 1,102,400 kilometers over ten days, arriving at the Moon on the night of Day 6. They will orbit the Moon at an altitude of several thousand kilometers, becoming the first humans to observe the far side of the Moon up close, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego on Day 10.
The Artemis 2 mission serves as a precursor to Artemis 3, the lunar surface landing project scheduled for 2027–2028. Once Artemis 3 launches, a human will step beyond lunar orbit and onto the Moon's surface for the first time since Neil Armstrong in July 1969.
Artemis 2 also carried K-RadCube, a Korean-built CubeSat loaded with semiconductors from Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS). K-RadCube will collect space data in the high Earth orbit (HEO) environment.
By initiating the first phase of crewed deep-space exploration, the United States has pulled ahead of China in the race for a crewed lunar landing. The two nations are targeting lunar landings in 2028 and 2030, respectively, and the U.S. envisions leveraging a successful Moon landing as a springboard for Mars.
According to Reuters and other major wire services on July 2, the NASA-led Artemis 2 launched from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the morning of that day Korea time. Carrying four astronauts toward the Moon, Artemis 2 will reach a point 6,400 kilometers from the lunar surface on Day 6 of flight — the farthest point from Earth during the mission. The spacecraft will not land on the Moon during this flight but will pass behind the far side and return to Earth.
