Picture Shows: The Artemis II capsule splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
After a long journey to the Moon and back the crew of the Artemis II spacecraft has returned safely to Earth. This mission which is to pave the way for a manned landing on the Moon in just a few short years away has been an absolute triumph.
When Artemis II ascended to space it appeared to be being treated by the public, based on what I saw on social media, as somewhat routine and I suspect that some people may have thought that because manned spaceflight has become much more common than it once was. However as the Artemis II mission went on more and more people appeared to be taking in interest in it. People started to understand the sheer and awesome significance of the mission. More individuals looked as if they understood that the goal is a return to manned Moon missions and Artemis II’s mission played a part in testing the systems, physical, engineering and crew resource management ones, that will be needed in order to put men back on the Moon.
The Artemis II crew and mission control have undertaken that task of paving the way for a landing excellently and many of the problems that the mission has had have been very minor ones which we should be thankful about as problems in space can sometimes be big or even fatal ones. Loads more information about the skills and engineering needed for a Moon landing have been garnered from the Artemis II mission and we should be thankful that at last the crew of Artemis II have returned to Earth safely. Remember, getting to space is hard but getting people back from space and through the challenging barrier of the atmosphere is even harder. Well done to NASA and to the crew and support staff of the Artemis II mission.