Artemis 2 mission underway despite loss of communication and technical issues

After arriving in space, small problems begin to arise for the four crew members of the first mission to the Moon in more than half a century. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman explained at a press conference that communication with the spacecraft was lost briefly during liftoff. The reason for this is still unknown, but communication with the astronauts has been re-established and the mission is continuing without incident.

Amit Kshatriya, associate administrator of the U.S. space agency, has also acknowledged a control issue with the toilet on the Orion spacecraft, the first of its kind on a mission to the Moon. Resolving the problem would take some time, he said. “We’re just getting started.” A few hours later, NASA reported that the crew, working closely with mission control in Houston, had managed to resolve the issue.

Mission engineers have downplayed these incidents. The Orion capsule deployed its solar panels as expected, and the planned objectives for the next 24 hours remain in place. “After a brief 54-year intermission, NASA is back in the business of sending astronauts to the Moon,” Isaacman said.

Artemis 2 is the first crewed mission to the Moon in more than half a century. The last time humans set foot on the lunar surface was in December 1972, when the Apollo 17 crew walked and even drove on the lunar regolith. All the astronauts in that program were white men. On this mission, Artemis 2 is taking a woman to the Moon for the first time — spacecraft specialist Christina Koch — as well as a Black man, pilot Victor Glover, and the first non-American, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The fourth crew member is Commander Reid Wiseman, on his second trip to space and undoubtedly his most ambitious mission yet.

Artemis 2 is a test flight that will travel to the Moon, explore its far side without landing, and return to Earth in about 10 days. It is the first time the SLS rocket, the most powerful ever to carry people into space, has been used with humans on board. It is also the first crewed test of the Orion spacecraft and its most critical systems, such as water, oxygen, and climate control. These systems are provided by the European Service Module, the European Space Agency’s main contribution to this mission, with its prime contractor Airbus. Several Spanish companies have built components for the module, which is also responsible for propelling the spacecraft to the Moon and back to Earth.

During this mission, the astronauts could travel farther in space than any humans in history, breaking the record of over 400,000 kilometers (248,550 miles) unintentionally set by the ill-fated Apollo 13. Thanks to their skill and quick-thinking, the three crew members of that mission in April 1970 managed to return safely to Earth.

The parallels with the first space race are striking. In the 1960s, when the United States beat the Soviet Union to the Moon, the country was mired in profound social upheaval and enduring the worst of the Vietnam War. Half a century later, the country is once again at war with Iran.

“We are winning, in Space, on Earth, and everywhere in between [...] and the whole World is watching,” Donald Trump wrote on his social media account, Truth. Trump has established a national space strategy aimed at winning the race to the Moon against China at all costs. The Asian nation has announced it will send astronauts to the lunar surface by 2030. NASA’s new plans include landing on the Moon, possibly twice, by 2028. This will be followed by the deployment of dozens of crewed and robotic missions, culminating in the establishment of permanent colonies by 2032.

The target of this new lunar colonialism is the Moon’s south pole, one of the most hostile yet promising regions. Here lie enormous craters in perpetual shadow, where tons of frozen water may be stored, which could potentially be used to supply the colonies and as future rocket fuel. Nights of total darkness last 14 Earth days. One of NASA’s objectives is to establish the Moon’s first nuclear power plant to provide energy to astronauts during these long periods when solar panels are ineffective. The south pole could also hold reserves of materials that could be extracted and shipped back to Earth.

This entire future hinges on two companies: SpaceX and Blue Origin. The companies founded by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, respectively, are competing to develop the lunar landers that will take astronauts back to the Moon’s surface in 2028. They also still need to demonstrate that they can build rockets with the necessary power and reliability to put these landers into orbit. Until recently, Musk was the frontrunner in this race, with his SpaceX rocket, which is even more powerful than NASA’s SLS and is also reusable. But this behemoth has yet to reach Earth orbit, and the design of its lunar lander has not yet been revealed.

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