NASA held a press conference following Artemis II’s successful Pacific splashdown on Friday (US time). Multiple officials took centre stage after NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen safely returned to Earth, concluding their high-stakes 10-day journey around the moon and back.
Howard Hu, NASA’s Orion program manager, who loved the Star War films as a kid and would watch them with his dad, said that their latest achievement was thousands of times better than the beloved movie. Meanwhile, Rick Henfling, entry flight director for NASA’s Artemis II, confirmed that their “next mission is right around the corner.”
Amit Kshatriya, the Indian-origin associate administrator of NASA, added that the Artemis II mission played a huge role to “build confidence” in the space agency to perform similar missions in the future.
Artemis II compared to Star Wars
Likening the marvellous mission to the original, epic sci-fi hit Star Wars, the Orion program manager also drew parallels between watching the movie as a kid himself just as any children who followed the Artemis II journey.
“Pursue your dreams,” said Howard Hu during the post-splashdown news conference. “I tell my kids to also pursue what you’re passionate about. And my passion is the space program. My passion is NASA, and I was able to accomplish that today, and hopefully many more days going forward.”
Sending out an inspirational message, he even called on space lovers to join NASA in its mission. “You have opportunity to do what you are passionate about, and hopefully those kids who are in love with human space flight, in love with going to the stars, will be inspired by us, especially by our crews. Come join NASA, come work for us, we’ve got a lot of missions ahead,” he added.
At one point, Hu even linked the Artemis II success to the “start of a new era of human space explorations,” as entry flight director Rick Henfling saying the next mission, which is due next year, is “right around the corner.”
When asked if he had a message to share with NASA in 50 years, Amit Kshatriya said, “This is going to be an important step and hopefully history is kind to us as a result.”
What’s next after Artemis II?
Following the resounding success of the agency’s first lunar campaign since the Apollo era, NASA is now targeting to take off for the next mission under the Artemis program in 2027.
Even before the Artemis II crew was back safe and sound, the preparations for Artemis III had already took off the ground. For the next mission, a new crew of astronauts will embark onboard the Orion spacecraft to Earth orbit. Once there, the space heroes will them dock with at least of the commercial lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
NASA is ultimately aiming for the Moon landing in 2028, which would mark the first time for humans to achieve the feat since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.