A NASA official told the BBC that humans could spend a lot of time on the Moon this decade.
According to Howard Hu, the agency’s program manager for the Orion lunar spacecraft, habitats would be required to support scientific missions.
He shared with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that the launch of the Orion-carrying Artemis rocket on Wednesday was a “historic day for human space flight.”
At this time, Orion is approximately 83,300 miles (134,000 km) from the Moon. As part of NASA’s mission to return astronauts to the Earth’s satellite, the 100-meter-tall Artemis rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center.
The Orion spacecraft, which is uncrewed for the first mission and sits atop the rocket, is outfitted with a “manikin” that will record the flight’s effects on the human body.
The flight on Wednesday came after two previous attempts at launch in August and September that were thwarted by technical issues during the countdown.
Hu told Laura Kuenssberg that it was “an unbelievable feeling” and “a dream” to watch Artemis take off.
He declared, “It’s the first step we’re taking to long-term deep space exploration, not just for the United States but for the world.”
“Not only do I believe that this is a historic day for NASA, but it is also a historic day for everyone who enjoys deep space exploration and human space flight.
“I mean, we are going back to the Moon, we are working toward a program that is sustainable, and this is the vehicle that will carry the people that will land us back on the Moon again,” the spokesperson stated.
Hu explained that if the current Artemis mission was successful, the next one would have a crew, and the third one would see astronauts return to the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
The ongoing mission was continuing great, he told the BBC, with all frameworks working and the mission group planning for the following terminating of Orion’s motors (what is known as a consume) at noon on Monday to place the shuttle into a far off circle of the Moon.
Hu acknowledged that it was similar to being an anxious parent to watch the mission from Earth, but he said that seeing the videos and images returned by Orion “really gives that excitement and feeling of, ‘wow, we are headed back to the Moon’.”
Getting the Orion module safely back to Earth is one of the mission’s most important phases.
Hu stated that the plan was to have humans living on the Moon “in this decade” once the safety of Artemis’s components and systems has been tested and proven. It will re-enter the planet’s atmosphere at 38,000 km/h (24,000 mph), or 32 times the speed of sound.