NASA’s Artemis II mission has been a bit of good news in what has been an unsettled spring filled with reports of war, inflation and political turmoil.

The expedition blasted off April 1 for the first manned lunar mission in more than 50 years. The four-person crew is taking part in a 10-day trip that includes a lunar flyby that will send them deeper into space than any human has gone before.

NASA says the Artemis II mission should be the forerunner for future Artemis missions. Those missions hope to see a manned landing on the moon and the building of a permanent lunar base.

The lunar mission is important for a number of reasons

First, the crew will be increasing our understanding of the universe. This week, the astronauts will have six hours during their lunar flyby to photograph and video the dark side of the moon. All crewed and unmanned landings on the moon have been on the near side of the moon, facing Earth, with the exception of the Chinese Chang’e 4 lander in 2019.

The entire mission itself is a test of the Orion capsule the astronauts are riding in, sort of a shakedown cruise.

Larger than the capsules used in the Apollo lunar missions, the Orion offers much more space for its crew. It has been compared to the size of two SUVs.

The Orion is planned to be the workhorse of future United States space missions. Orion can function for 21 days on its own and up to six months if docked with another module, such as the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The Orion’s systems have been designed to be easily upgraded as new technology becomes available.

The Artemis II mission is also a revival of a moribund NASA. Since the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011, NASA astronauts had to hitch rides to the International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz capsules or the private company SpaceX’s CrewDragon craft. The Orion capsule should change that, leaving NASA no longer beholden to either the Russians or private companies to reach Earth orbit and beyond.

Finally, with the successful completion of the Artemis II mission, Americans will be shown an example of a government project that worked as it was intended thanks to the efforts of thousands of workers, technicians and scientists all dedicated to a common cause.

That would be good news indeed.

— EF