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NASA Says It’s Ready to Send Astronauts Back to the Moon

After analyzing data from the Artemis I flight, which landed back on Earth at the end of last year, NASA says it’s good to go.

After the success of NASA’s Artemis I program, the space agency said Tuesday that the test “proved the agency’s deep space rocket, spacecraft, and the ground systems needed for launch and recovery are ready to fly astronauts on missions to the Moon.” Engineers have been using data collected by the unmanned Artemis I flight in order to send U.S. astronauts on the 1.4 million-mile trek back to the surface of the moon–and so far, so good, with an analysis of the rocket’s debut flight systems “exceeding, performance expectations” in many cases, NASA said. “We’re learning as much as we possibly can from Artemis I to ensure we fully understand every aspect of our systems and feed those lessons learned into how we plan for and fly crewed missions,” said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. A mobile launcher–a ground structure used to assemble, process and launch NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft–however, sustained “more damage than initially expected.” Variations in Orion’s heat shield are also being examined. The Artemis II mission, the first to launch with humans, is planned for late 2024.