Carter Bagshaw and Paul Jordan – Mustangs Ahead
(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL)- The Artemis II mission by NASA, whose goal is to send people back to the moon for the first time in over five decades, is launching today.
The rocket is designed to transport the heavy Orion spacecraft and four crew members to the moon and back.
The rocket itself holds two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) that, on liftoff, will generate 8.8 million pounds of thrust immediately. Once the solid rocket boosters detach four RS-25 rocket boosters will be active for around eight minutes and complete ascension.
Once the core stage detaches, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) will perform small burns to get the Artemis II rocket into high orbit and make its way to the moon.
Lakewood Ranch Hish School (LRHS) science teacher Stephanie Butera noted, “I think it's very exciting and I can't wait to see what happens! Hopefully they discover something new.”
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The Artemis program as a whole is projected to cost around $93 billion. The funding for the Artemis II mission is partly due to the federal “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which overruled proposals to end the project.
Another large contributor to the project is Elon Musk and SpaceX. SpaceX is creating the landing systems that the astronauts will use in later missions designed to land on the moon.
Although Musk believes Mars to be the ultimate goal for the Artemis program, he is quoted saying “the overring priority is securing the future of civilization and the moon is faster.”
LRHS engineering teacher Bryan Richards stated, “I think it's incredible since of all the stuff that goes into it like the technology and thinking is crazy and can impact life significantly.”
Roman Haught assisted with this story.