{"id":82103,"date":"2026-03-30T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/?p=82103"},"modified":"2026-03-29T20:00:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T02:00:24","slug":"journey-to-the-moon-starting-to-feel-real-for-nasas-artemis-ii-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opinionpublica.tv\/portada\/journey-to-the-moon-starting-to-feel-real-for-nasas-artemis-ii-crew\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey to the Moon \u2018starting to feel real\u2019 for NASA\u2019s Artemis II crew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Journey<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a few days, four astronauts could be strapped into a spacecraft for the first crewed trip to head toward the moon since 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThings are certainly starting to feel real,\u201d said Christina Koch, a NASA astronaut and one of the four members of the Artemis II crew, said during a news conference Sunday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She and her crewmates \u2014 Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover of NASA, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency \u2014 spoke from crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In the days leading up to the launch, they are living in a precautionary physical quarantine to ensure that they do not fall ill before or during their mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a news conference in the afternoon, mission managers said preparations for a launch on Wednesday evening are proceeding smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can safely say the crew\u2019s ready,\u201d said Shawn Quinn, the program manager in charge of the ground systems needed to launch Artemis II. \u201cRocket\u2019s ready. Spaceship\u2019s ready. Ground systems are ready, and we only need to have the weather cooperate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forecast calls for an 80 percent chance of favorable weather during a two-hour launch window on Wednesday that starts at 6:24 p.m. Eastern time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-day countdown is scheduled to begin on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Artemis II mission is to take the astronauts on a 10-day mission that is to go to the moon, without landing, and then back to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. For NASA, it is a major test of the spacecraft (in particular, the life support systems) in the lead-up to trying to land astronauts on the moon in a couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a mission of deep-space firsts. In the 1960s and 1970s, the astronauts in the Apollo program were white American men. Ms. Koch will be the first woman to pass over the moon, Mr. Glover will be the first Black person and Mr. Hansen will be the first Canadian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe always say that we are not doing this for the superlatives,\u201d said Mr. Wiseman, who is the commander of the mission. Rather, Artemis II is \u201cfor all, and by all,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is what NASA embodies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their towering rocket has been sitting at the launchpad for more than a week after NASA fixed problems that scuttled launch opportunities in February and early March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Hansen said they had prepared to make detailed visual observations of colors and brightness and other features when they pass over the far side of the moon, including swaths of the surface that human eyes have never seen before. As he has waited to launch, he sometimes has gone outside at night and looked up at that bright round object in the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really feel like, gosh, that is really far away,\u201d Mr. Hansen said. \u201cAnd it just gives me great appreciation for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Koch added, \u201cIt is our strong hope that this mission is the start of an era where everyone, every person on Earth, can look at the moon and think of it as also a destination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n