NASA Unveils Final Design of the Orion Spacecraft for Astronauts’ Return to the Moon After Half a Century.
Protective cover of the Orion spacecraft’s rear shell. (Image: NASA).
NASA has shared new images of the Orion spacecraft, which will orbit the Moon during the Artemis 2 mission, slated for launch as early as September 2025 with four astronauts aboard, according to Space on January 18. The crew cabin interior of the Orion spacecraft has been completed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Staff members have also installed the protective cover and insulation on the exterior.
Interior cabin being installed of the Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center. (Image: NASA).
The four astronauts selected for the Artemis 2 mission are commander Reid Wiseman, astronaut Victor Glover (who will become the first African American to leave low Earth orbit), mission specialist Christina Koch (the first woman to fly beyond LEO), and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.
Windows surrounding the cockpit of the Orion spacecraft. (Image: NASA).
This quartet will be the first astronauts to utilize the Orion spacecraft. Orion has flown into space twice before on uncrewed missions, hence it was not equipped with life support systems. These missions include Artemis 1 to lunar orbit at the end of 2022 and a short flight to low Earth orbit in 2014.
Artemis 2 will be the first crewed mission of the Artemis program, paving the way for the goal of landing humans on the Moon in the Artemis 3 mission. Both Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 have been delayed as of January 2024 due to several technical issues. While Artemis 2 has been pushed back nine months to September 2025, Artemis 3 is expected to take place a year later, in 2026. The Artemis program aims to establish a settlement near the Moon’s South Pole to exploit water resources available there.
