The final pre-launch test for NASA’s Artemis 2 mission is officially underway. If everything goes according to plan, astronauts could be heading back to the Moon as soon as Sunday, February 8, but the agency may wind up regretting it.
Despite the enormous significance of this mission, there is a startling lack of public interest in—or even knowledge of—Artemis 2. It’s clear that NASA’s public relations team has struggled to get the word out to those who aren’t already entrenched in the spaceflight world. This problem has plagued the Artemis program from the beginning, but recent delays, internal tumult at NASA, and the fact that we’re still years away from an actual lunar landing haven’t helped.
The next big step back to the Moon
Even though the Artemis 2 astronauts won’t set foot on the lunar surface, this will still be the most exciting crewed mission since the Apollo era. NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft will send four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the Moon, taking them farther from Earth than any human has traveled before.
Artemis 2 will not only be the first crewed test flight for both SLS and Orion, but also the first time a woman, a person of color, and a Canadian have flown to the lunar environment. Along the way, the astronauts will observe parts of the Moon’s far side that no person has ever laid eyes on and conduct biomedical research that will help NASA return to the lunar surface and establish a sustained presence there.
Artemis 2 is clearly so much more than a mere test flight, and yet, humanity’s long-awaited return to deep space isn’t getting the attention it deserves. If the mission launches during the February launch window—which opens February 8 and ends February 11—there is a real risk that it will be drowned out by the excitement of the Winter Olympic Games in Italy, which begin on Friday.
Can’t compete
The games never fail to dominate media coverage. They will certainly captivate viewers for the entirety of the 10-day Artemis 2 mission if the two overlap. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics were the most-streamed Olympics of all time, with a combined average of 30.6 million viewers across NBCU’s platforms, according to the media conglomerate.
If Artemis 2 lifts off as soon as the launch window opens this coming Sunday, it will also coincide with the Super Bowl—the most-watched annual sporting event in the United States. Artemis 2 would launch about an hour after the game ends around 10:30 p.m. ET, and if NASA thinks a bunch of beer-drunk, chicken-wing-stuffed Americans are going to stay up that late to watch a rocket launch, the agency is sorely mistaken.
The thing is, NASA really needs Americans to care about Artemis 2. Their tax dollars and voting power are what will keep the Artemis program running long enough for the agency to achieve its goals of returning to the lunar surface, building a Moon base, and ultimately sending humans to Mars. Without sustained public interest and political will, this multi-billion-dollar endeavor will quickly become an easy budgetary target.
Artemis 2 is NASA’s chance to show the nation that it’s ready to enter a new era of human spaceflight, but it can’t do so if no one is watching. While this spaceflight reporter is as eager as any to see this historic mission get off the ground, it would be wise for NASA to forego the February window and work toward the March launch opportunities instead, which run from March 6 to 11. We’ve waited 50 years to return to the Moon, so we can wait a few weeks more.
Rest assured, Gizmodo will be covering Artemis 2 from launch to splashdown no matter what. Watch this space if you don’t want to miss a single update about this historic mission.
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