NASA’s Artemis II mission is shaping up to be more than just the next step in returning humans to the moon — it is a key test of whether the agency’s traditional contractor-built systems can remain viable in a rapidly shifting space industry.
The mission, launched on Wednesday evening from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will send astronauts around the moon for the first time in over 50 years. It will be the first crewed flight of Boeing and Northrop Grumman’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Lockheed Martin’s Orion capsule.
While both systems have undergone years of development and uncrewed testing, with the rocket’s more than $24 billion development beginning in 2010, Artemis II marks the moment when their reliability will be judged under the highest possible stakes: human flight.
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