New Orleans built key piece of NASA's Artemis II rocket
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Left to right: NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images
New Orleans plays a starring role in NASA's Artemis II mission — a high-stakes crewed test flight marking America's return to the Moon.
Why it matters: Florida may get the glory for hosting the launch on Wednesday, but New Orleans built a significant part of the rocket that will take the crew to space.
The big picture: The two-hour launch window opens at 5:24pm CT.
- Yet space travel remains unpredictable at best.
- The Artemis II "stack" — that's the Space Launch System rocket plus the Orion spacecraft atop it — had to be rolled back into its hangar in late February to fix technical issues that prevented an earlier launch attempt.
- If Wednesday's attempt is scrubbed, there are launch windows every day through Monday and again on April 30.
Zoom in: Workers at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility built the "orange parts" of the SLS that will carry Orion into space, Michoud director Hansel Gill says.
- The new launch system is the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built. NASA ultimately plans to use it for missions to Mars.
- Michoud built the system's core stage, which NASA calls the "backbone" of the rocket. Boeing is the prime contractor.
Zoom out: The 10-day Artemis II mission is a crewed "dress rehearsal" for a lunar landing.
- NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch will become the first person of color and first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit, respectively.
- Canada's Jeremy Hansen will become the first non-American to voyage beyond that mark.
The timeline: While no small feat, Artemis II is only a lunar flyby.
- NASA once planned a moon landing with Artemis III, but recently revised its schedule.
- Artemis III will now involve testing lunar lander vehicles, with a moon landing targeted for Artemis IV in 2028.
What's next: NASA hopes to return to the Moon annually, if not more often, with the ambitious goal of establishing a lunar base.
- But first: A quick visit to check out the cosmic neighborhood before getting into the real estate market.
Go deeper: NASA returns to deep space
