Artemis II space launch ‘politically important’ in new era of space competition, expert says
“Politically speaking, it’s very important that this mission succeeds, especially given its symbolic weight,” said Mai’a Cross, dean’s professor of political science, international affairs and diplomacy.
Astrophiles are eagerly awaiting the launch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Artemis II on Wednesday, which is set to be the most powerful rocket launch on record and will send human beings back toward the moon for the first time in over 50 years.
Beyond the array of impressive technical feats involved, the mission marks a new era of space exploration and competition after decades of relative dormancy, as the United States and China race to return astronauts to the moon and establish a sustained presence there, Northeastern University experts say.
“Politically speaking, it’s very important that this mission succeeds, especially given its symbolic weight,” said Mai’a Cross, dean’s professor of political science, international affairs and diplomacy at Northeastern University, and an expert on space diplomacy and cooperation. “If the U.S. doesn’t achieve that first, there will likely be a rapid and significant response to correct course.”
Rather than land on the moon, the lunar “flyby” mission is meant to be a test flight for the Orion spacecraft, which is the vehicle carrying the four astronauts as part of the new mission. The spacecraft will spend a full day in high Earth orbit, a distance of more than 35,000 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, and 10 total days in deep space, which is space beyond the Earth-Moon system.
The mission’s American astronauts include NASA’s Reid Wiseman, who is the spacecraft’s commander, Victor Glover, a pilot, and Christina Koch, a mission specialist, as well as the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen. The four astronauts are scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday evening, beginning at 6:24 p.m. ET, at the earliest.
The mission also marks a host of other milestones. Koch will become the first woman to orbit the moon, and Hansen will become the first Canadian ever to do so. The four-person crew will also be part of the first moon launch since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
The trip is also expected to break new ground in space exploration, carrying astronauts farther from Earth than any humans have traveled before. The crew will catch glimpses of the far side of the moon — a view from as close as 6,000 miles above the lunar surface that none of the astronauts on an Apollo mission ever saw, according to NASA. From that vantage point, the moon will appear roughly the size of a basketball held at arm’s length, the space agency has said.
Despite these exceptional achievements, the crew’s time in high Earth orbit will be somewhat ordinary, according to Cross, who said the team will be very busy “essentially rehearsing what life in space looks like.” That includes testing docking procedures and waste management systems, radiation shielding, and propulsion and power systems, as well as routine tasks like sleeping, heating up food and exercising.
“It’s really about testing the day-to-day experience of astronauts in this new capsule,” she said. “With so many components working together, it’s hard to predict where weaknesses might emerge. That’s why this mission is essentially a rehearsal.”
As routine as the astronauts’ undertaking might seem, it’s been a long, complicated road to the launch. Part of the reason it’s taken the U.S. so long to return to the moon is the collective sense of tragedy resulting from a string of failures dating back to the Space Shuttle Challenger calamity in 1986 and later, in 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, experts say. Those incidents together claimed the lives of all 14 people who were aboard those shuttles.
Northeastern University astrophysicist Jonathan Blazek said it’s hard to assess the dangers facing the Artemis crew. There’s always the possibility of a low probability event, he said, noting that the state-of-the-art Artemis II spacecraft “is still essentially an experimental vehicle.”
“If you look at past incidents… those came down to very specific, unexpected failures: a faulty component, debris striking the shuttle,” Blazek said. “These are the kinds of things that are hard to anticipate fully.”
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This particular launch also saw a series of delays. It was initially scheduled for February, but checks found hydrogen fuel leaks and issues with helium flow on NASA’s 322-foot Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket, which is designed to launch the Orion spacecraft.
Given the 50-plus year gap since the last moon-bound mission, the trip will inaugurate an era of renewed competition, with the United States and China effectively locked in a new space race to return astronauts to the moon, Cross said. Russia has largely fallen out of the competition.
“Russia has a strong legacy in space exploration, with significant technology and infrastructure, but it hasn’t been able to invest heavily in advancing that capacity,” Cross said.
After its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the country has been hampered by sanctions, restricted access to advanced technology and equipment and workforce shortages, among other things — all of which have slowed the development of its space program, according to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Pennsylvania-based think tank devoted to scholarship on foreign policy and national security.
In the new contest, Beijing has rapidly advanced its capabilities in recent years and is aiming to land its own astronauts on the moon by around 2030, while NASA is targeting a return before the end of that decade.
The new landscape also includes thousands of private space companies worldwide, Cross noted. In the future, NASA plans to attach a human landing system to the Orion spacecraft, allowing astronauts to descend to the moon’s surface, and companies such as Blue Origin and SpaceX are competing to develop that new tech.
“Space exploration isn’t just about science or awe — it’s also about status,” Cross said. “Being seen as a leading space power carries real global prestige.”
