Now we must focus on continued forward-looking goals

In the evening of April 10, the Artemis 2 mission concluded with a flawless reentry and splashdown off the coast of Southern California. From its launch on April 1 to the crew recovery on Friday, the flight was one for the history books, with every major system working as planned.

“Congratulations to the crew and the teams who made this possible,” said Karlton Johnson, NSS CEO. “Four heroic crew members carried the flag into deep space, going further than anyone before them, and have taken a bold step forward in extending human presence beyond Earth.”

Johnson added, “Today’s splashdown brings the mission full circle. America has  shown that we can operate in cislunar space, as we did so long ago, and with confidence and permanence. This is how sustained human activity beyond Earth begins to take shape.”

The flight lasted just over nine days and hit its objectives one after another. From a successful launch, to raising to high Earth orbit, to the trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn, a successful lunar flyby, and their return home, Artemis 2 was “by the numbers,” as Apollo Flight Director Gerry Griffin put it. “I’ve seen the early flights of every U.S. launch system, and the launch of Artemis 2 was about the smoothest. What a mission!”

Next comes the flight of Artemis 3 in 2027, an Earth-orbital test flight of rendezvous and docking between the Orion capsule and lunar landing hardware. This will be followed by Artemis 4, now scheduled to land astronauts on the Moon in 2028. But these missions, spectacular as they are, are just the beginning, and there’s work to be done to ensure smooth continuity.

“As we welcome the Artemis crew back to Earth from their hugely successful lunar voyage, it is time to redouble our efforts to support a strong and economically sustainable space program,” said Dale Skran, NSS COO and Senior Vice President. “The exciting lunar base plan presented by NASA Administrator Isaacman has been followed by a new budget from the White House that, for a second year in a row, dramatically cuts NASA science programs, and attempts to derail the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program to support privately operated space stations. The NSS is urgently needed as a citizen’s advocacy group, fighting for continuity in space progress and humanity’s spacefaring future.”