Launch preparations have begun for the Artemis II mission, NASA’s planned lunar fly-around by four astronauts that will be the first moon trip in 53 years. Tensions were high as hydrogen fuel

As NASA prepares for its next mission to the moon, one Atlanta university is drawing attention for its growing role in space exploration.

The launch team needs to load more than 700,000 gallons of fuel into the 32-story Space Launch System rocket on the pad before the Artemis II crew can board.

We know there is an awful lot going on in the world right now, but we shouldn't forget that humans are actually heading back into space. That's a big deal.

The Artemis II crew will be the first humans in decades to fly beyond low-Earth orbit, meaning that they won’t be protected by our magnetic field. As such, the space cadets will be exposed to deep-space radiation, which can raise the astronauts’ risk of cancer, with extreme doses causing acute symptoms, according to New Scientist.

Helping the astronauts of Artemis II speak to the folks on Earth is the Deep Space Network, operated out of Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida — The US military has always been part of NASA’s human spaceflight program. The first astronauts were nearly all military pilots, and two of the four crew members set to fly around the Moon on NASA’s Artemis II mission were Navy test pilots before joining the astronaut corps.

December 11, 1998—launch day for the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) and the accompanying Polar Lander, both of which were part of a larger NASA initiative known as Mars Surveyor ’98. NASA had commissioned Lockheed Martin to design and build the MCO, which was was destined to gather data on Martian weather while communicating with the Polar Lander.