The United States has taken the lead over China in the race for crewed lunar landings by launching the first phase of its deep-space human exploration program. The two countries are targeting moon landings in 2028 and 2030 respectively, with the U.S. envisioning an eventual push to Mars building on a successful lunar landing.
NASA's Artemis 2 launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the morning of July 2 Korea time, according to Reuters and other major wire services. Carrying four astronauts toward the Moon, Artemis 2 will reach its farthest point from Earth on its sixth day of flight, passing within 6,400 kilometers of the lunar surface. The mission will not land on the Moon but will swing around the far side before returning to Earth.
The Artemis 2 mission serves as a comprehensive test flight to verify humanity's capability for crewed deep-space travel beyond Earth's magnetic field toward the Moon and Mars. If this mission is a rehearsal for a lunar landing, the Artemis 3 mission is the full-scale crewed exploration project that will actually land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028.
