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NASA is set to return to the moon. Here are 4 reasons to go back

Scott Neuman

nasa travel to moon

Astronaut Charlie M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, is photographed collecting lunar samples during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity at the Descartes landing site. John W. Young/NASA hide caption

Astronaut Charlie M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, is photographed collecting lunar samples during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity at the Descartes landing site.

President John F. Kennedy delivered a famous speech in 1962 outlining his administration's challenge to land Americans on the moon. "We choose to go to the moon," he declared, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

As difficult a technological feat as the Apollo moon program proved, within seven years NASA had met Kennedy's challenge and ultimately sent a dozen astronauts to the surface on six missions between 1969 and 1972 at a cost of about $25 billion — roughly $250 billion in today's dollars.

Artemis: NASA's New Chapter In Space

Artemis: NASA's New Chapter In Space

Sixty years after Kennedy's speech, NASA is again getting ready to send humans to the moon . Proving that rocket science is still hard, NASA will be making a third attempt on Wednesday to launch the uncrewed Artemis I after two previous launches were scrubbed due to technical issues. Once it finally gets off the ground, the mission will be the first test flight of the hardware that will be used to send astronauts in the next few years.

No doubt, many people are wondering: Why go back?

There's a lot of science to be done on the moon

The rock samples brought back by Apollo astronauts decades ago taught scientists a lot about the geologic history of Earth and the moon .

What can be gathered by today's astronauts could tell us even more, says David Kring, a lunar geologist at the Center for Lunar Science & Exploration in Houston, Texas.

It's easier to set down a spacecraft near the moon's equator, so that's where all six Apollo landings occurred. But now, NASA has more ambitious aims.

In August, just ahead of the first launch attempt, NASA announced 13 possible landing sites , each in the south pole region, where water ice has been confirmed deep inside craters that never see sunlight. A crewed lunar flyby, Artemis II, is anticipated for 2024. And the first crewed landing, Artemis III, could come as early as 2025.

nasa travel to moon

A rendering of 13 candidate landing regions for Artemis III. Each region is approximately 9.3 miles by 9.3 miles. A landing site is a location within those regions with an approximate 328-foot radius. NASA hide caption

A rendering of 13 candidate landing regions for Artemis III. Each region is approximately 9.3 miles by 9.3 miles. A landing site is a location within those regions with an approximate 328-foot radius.

The sites "are some of the best places to go for lunar geology and understanding lunar ice and sampling lunar ice," says Bethany Ehlmann, associate director of the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology.

The Artemis Moon mission moves NASA into new era of space exploration

Kring calls the lunar south pole region "absolutely extraordinary geologic terrain."

"If you really want to understand the origin of the evolution of the solar system, there is no better place ... to go [than] the moon," Kring says. Because the moon has never had an atmosphere or flowing water, it is not subject to weathering and erosion and has thus preserved evidence of its origin, he says.

As technology has steadily improved in the decades since Apollo, the level of detail on the moon's surface revealed by such probes as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter "is so extraordinary that we've already identified rocks on the lunar surface that we want the astronauts to collect," Kring says.

nasa travel to moon

Illustration of SpaceX Starship human lander design that will carry the first Artemis astronauts to the surface of the moon. SpaceX hide caption

Illustration of SpaceX Starship human lander design that will carry the first Artemis astronauts to the surface of the moon.

Having astronaut boots on the moon has other advantages, too, says Craig Hardgrove, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. He considers himself "a huge fan of robotic exploration," but nonetheless acknowledges that rovers and landers are limited by the scientific instruments they carry with them. They also have a harder time capturing as much data on the detailed geologic context and landscape as an astronaut trained in geology can.

Humans, by contrast, "are able to collect a large number of samples much quicker than robots," says Hardgrove, who is principal investigator of the Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper ( LunaH-Map ) mission, set to launch aboard the Artemis I rocket. The shoebox-size probe aims to pinpoint the location of polar ice deposits.

With astronauts selecting the best samples and bringing them home, laboratories and universities can examine them with a wider range of sophisticated tools, he says. "If we can bring them back to Earth, I think we have a much better shot at answering even more questions than we can if we're limited to rovers."

It's a stepping stone to Mars

Mars is at least 200 times farther from Earth than the moon, which means an enormous challenge in keeping astronauts safe from such things as radiation exposure, Hardgrove says.

"The launch windows to get to Mars are once every two years," he says. "So, we would be thinking about keeping our astronauts on the surface of Mars for a long period of time. I personally feel like we would be doing them a service and everyone a service if we test out all these technologies on the moon first."

nasa travel to moon

This image of the parachute that helped deliver NASA's Perseverance Mars rover to the Martian surface was taken by the rover's Mastcam-Z instrument in April. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS hide caption

This image of the parachute that helped deliver NASA's Perseverance Mars rover to the Martian surface was taken by the rover's Mastcam-Z instrument in April.

Apollo was mostly about beating the Soviet Union to the moon. It succeeded, but there was no long-term plan to create a sustainable human presence there.

Artemis could change that, says Clive Neal, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and Earth sciences at the University of Notre Dame. He's especially keen to see a gradual shift toward a permanent human presence on the moon.

Given that SpaceX, a commercial venture, has been chosen to provide the vehicle that will land Artemis astronauts on the lunar surface, that prospect may not be as far off as once thought.

"We need to build an infrastructure that's going to say, 'OK, we're going to have human permanence on the moon and transition to commercial operations there in the future,'" Neal says. "And we can have a blueprint then at the moon of how to do these things sustainably that can be applied to more distant destinations."

It could spur new technologies

Dozens of new technologies created to go into space and to the moon have also brought substantial benefits to people on Earth — spawning everything from hand-held computers to insulin pumps and freeze-dried food.

Artemis could spark similar innovations.

nasa travel to moon

The core technology used in dialysis machines was first developed for NASA. Science Photo Library/Getty Images hide caption

A 2013 study commissioned by NASA estimates that commercial products emerging from the space agency's research return between $100 million and $1 billion annually to the U.S. economy. Many of those "spinoffs" had their origin in the Apollo program.

The Apollo Guidance Computer , for example, was a technological marvel of its day. It was an early demonstration of digital fly-by-wire technology that is used in modern passenger jets and military aircraft.

Space Spinoffs: The Technology To Reach The Moon Was Put To Use Back On Earth

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing, 50 Years Later

Space spinoffs: the technology to reach the moon was put to use back on earth.

"We're still reaping the rewards of miniaturization of electronics that happened during Apollo," Neal says. "Think about mobile phones. This is a technology that maybe would not have happened without Apollo."

New flame-retardant fabrics first developed for spacesuits, to withstand very high temperatures and still remain lightweight, are found today in clothing to protect firefighters around the country.

A "super insulation" developed for NASA in the 1960s can now be "found hidden inside the walls and roofs of buildings, in cryogenic tanks and MRI machines, in winter gear, and in cases for electronic devices, among other applications," according to NASA.

It has the potential to inspire a generation of engineers and scientists

It's often said that the Apollo moonshot inspired thousands of new engineers and scientists. While numbers are impossible to quantify, according to a 2009 survey of 800 researchers , "the Moon landings deserve credit for motivating a large fraction of today's scientists ... who have published in Nature in the past three years."

nasa travel to moon

Workers prepare the Psyche spacecraft inside a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in April. After a delay, Psyche, which will enter orbit in space around an asteroid, is expected to launch next year. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Workers prepare the Psyche spacecraft inside a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in April. After a delay, Psyche, which will enter orbit in space around an asteroid, is expected to launch next year.

With Artemis, "we're going to get nearly live video from the surface of the moon and people are going to start thinking about the moon as a real place," Hardgrove, of ASU, says.

"I think it can absolutely be inspirational, hopefully not just for people like me, but [also] people who may not be thinking about careers in space exploration or engineering," he says.

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Why the Moon?

The Artemis missions will build a community on the Moon, driving a new lunar economy and inspiring a new generation. This video explains why returning to the Moon is the natural next step in human space exploration, and how the lessons learned from Artemis will pave the way to Mars and beyond.

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Meet the four astronauts who will soon take a trip to the Moon

nasa travel to moon

NASA has selected the four astronauts that will travel to the Moon during the upcoming Artemis 2 mission, which will be humanity’s first crewed return to the Moon in more than 50 years.

The four astronauts are: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch of NASA, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.

“The Artemis 2 crew represents thousands of people working tirelessly to bring us to the stars,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson before announcing the crew during a  live event broadcast on NASA TV . “This is their crew. This is our crew. This is humanity’s crew.”

Get to know the Artemis 2 crew

Reid wiseman (commander):.

Formerly NASA’s chief astronaut,  Wiseman  is a 47-year-old captain in the U.S. Navy that was selected to be an astronaut in 2009. In 2014, he spent 165 days aboard the  International Space Station . During this time, Wiseman undertook two spacewalks and helped carry out more than 300 scientific experiments in areas ranging from human physiology to medicine to Earth science to astrophysics. During that stretch, Wiseman and his team also set a record by completing 82 hours of research in a single week.

Victor Glover (Pilot):

A 46-year-old captain in the U.S. Navy,  Glover  was selected to be an astronaut in 2013. In November 2020, he served as pilot of the  first operational mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule , spending 168 days on the International Space Station. Glover was also the first black man to be assigned to a space station crew and has carried out four total spacewalks. Some colleagues call Glover “Ike,” a nickname that one of his first commanding officers jokingly gave him. It stands for  “I know everything. ”

Christina Koch (Mission Specialist):

Previously an electrical engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland,  Koch  was selected to be an astronaut in 2013. At 44 years old, Koch has carried out six spacewalks totaling more than 42 hours. She also currently holds the  record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman , which she set while staying aboard the International Space Station for a whopping 328 days straight.

Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist):

One of four active Canadian astronauts,  Hansen  is a 47-year-old former fighter pilot. He was selected to be an astronaut by the  Canadian Space Agency  (CSA) in 2009, but he has yet to fly to space. During his time representing the CSA at NASA, Hansen has served as a capsule communicator, relaying information between mission control in Houston and astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

The Artemis 2 crew was selected by NASA’s Director of Flight Operations, Norm Night, and NASA’s Chief Astronaut, Joe Acabá, under the supervision of Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche.

Humanity returns to the Moon

The Artemis 2 mission, slated for launch in 2024, will not see humans return to the Moon’s surface. Instead, the crew will take a trip around the Moon, testing the technologies required to eventually land humans on the lunar surface during Artemis 3.

“Artemis 1 was a resounding success,” said Night. “And Artemis 2 will leverage that by putting humans in the loop, executing operations in the critical path leading to new footprints on the lunar surface.”

nasa travel to moon

“[Artemis 2] is a mission that is significant in many ways,” said Nelson. “It’s a demonstration of our ability to push the boundaries of human achievement. It’s a testament to the unwavering passion of the team that will make it possible. And it’s a message to the world: We choose to go back to the Moon and then onto Mars, and we’re going to do it together, because in the 21st century, NASA explores the cosmos with international partners.”

In total, the Artemis 2 mission to the Moon and back will take about 10 days to complete. And once the crew-carrying Orion spacecraft makes its way back, it will reenter Earth’s atmosphere at a blistering 30 times the speed of sound before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

“The Moon is a symbol of our can-do spirit,” said Nelson. “And over the course of the Artemis missions, the first woman and the first person of color will take giant leaps on the lunar surface. It’s been more than a half-century since astronauts journeyed to the Moon. Well folks, that’s about to change.”

Along with members of the press and many elected officials, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, several surviving  Apollo astronauts  were also present at the event.

“We’ve made many giant leaps in the past 60 years, fulfilling  President Kennedy’s goal  of landing a person on the Moon,” said Wyche. “And today, we stand on the shoulders of giants as we reach further into the stars and push forward to the Moon once again — and on to Mars.”

“We will show what is possible when we dare to reach,” said Nelson.

Orion's "selfie" of itself and the Moon. Orion will carry astronauts on several space missions.

An updated list of space missions: Current and upcoming voyages

This view of the twilight sky and Martian horizon taken by NASA Curiosity Mars rover includes Earth as the brightest point of light in the night sky. Earth is a little left of center in the image, and our moon is just below Earth.

Isolation and annoying co-workers: Solving the stress of a trip to Mars

The Perseverance Rover is collecting samples to learn more about Mars’ environment. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Studying lake deposits could give scientists insight into ancient traces of life on Mars

nasa travel to moon

Evidence shows the Moon’s south pole is probably not the best place to land

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter unlocked its rotor blades, allowing them to spin freely, on April 7, 2021. Credit: NASA.

The Mars Ingenuity helicopter ends its mission after 3 years

During a test for the Artemis mission in 2022, Orion passes close to the Moon’s surface, with Earth a small crescent in the background. Credit: NASA

‘Safety is our top priority’: NASA delays Artemis Mission until 2025

NASA astronaut Christina Koch stops for a picture while replacing equipment on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

What are the hazards of living in space? Swollen heads, for one

Bill Anders’ famous photograph of Earthrise became an iconic image of the Space Age — and a clarion call to the emerging environmental movement.

Apollo 8’s reading from Genesis made a lasting cultural impact

Image specialist Andy Saunders analyzed archival stills taken by the astronauts and was able to measure the distance of Shepard’s second shot. Credit: NASA/JSC/ASU/Andy Saunders

Ask Astro: How far could a pro golfer hit a ball on the Moon?

NASA announces 4 astronauts who will travel around the moon on Artemis II

The team includes the first woman and first person of color on a moon mission.

NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced Monday the four astronauts who will partake in the next Artemis mission and fly around the moon.

The Artemis II team will be made up of three Americans -- Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Reid Wiseman -- and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.

The team includes Koch as the first woman and Glover as the first person of color who will eventually go on to step foot on the lunar surface. Glover will be the pilot of the spacecraft and Wiseman will be the commander of Artemis II.

The agencies made the announcement at a media event at the NASA Johnson Space Center's Ellington Field in Houston, Texas.

MORE: How Hurricane Nicole impacted Artemis I rocket

"We are here today with the mission to introduce the world to the crew of Artemis II for names, for explorers, for my friends, answering the call to once more rocket away from Earth, and chart a course around the moon," Joe Acaba, chief of NASA's astronaut office, said at the start of the event.

Glover, 46, will be the first person of color to voyage to the moon. Glover was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013 and most recently served as a pilot and second-in-command on the Crew-1 SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2020.

He has spent roughly 167 days in space. According to NASA, Glover was the first African American astronaut to join a long-duration expedition crew aboard the International Space Station.

"We need to celebrate this moment in human history because Artemis II is more than a mission to the moon and back," Glover said. "It's more than a mission that has to happen before we send people to the surface of the moon. It is the next step on the journey that gets humanity to Mars and this crew, we'll never forget that."

PHOTO: Crew assignments for the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II are Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen.

Koch, 43, made history with fellow astronaut Jessica Mer in October 2019 when they performed the first all-female spacewalk together.

Koch was also selected as an astronaut in 2013 and has completed six spacewalks. She currently holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days.

"We're not going to go to the moon right away," she said. "We're gonna stay in an amazing high orbit, reaching a peak of tens of thousands of miles while we test out all the systems on Orion and even see how it maneuvers in space. And then if everything looks good, we're heading to the moon."

Wiseman, 47, is a decorated naval aviator who was selected to be an astronaut in June 2009.

In 2014, he served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station and, over a 165-day mission, completed more than 300 experiments with his crewmates. Wiseman recently served as chief of the astronaut office, but stepped down in November because the chief is unable to fly in space.

MORE: Artemis I Orion capsule splashes down after NASA mission near moon

Hansen, 47, was a fighter pilot before he joined the CSA and he currently helps NASA with astronaut training and mission operations.

Not only will this be Hansen's first mission in space but he will also be the first Canadian to ever travel to the moon.

President Joe Biden congratulated the team in a tweet Monday, which included a video of him speaking with the Artemis II team.

"Look, I want to thank you for your incredible service," Biden said in the clip. "The mission you're about to go on, the United States can return people to the moon. It's hard to believe for the first time in over 50 years."

It comes after the Artemis I mission was completed in December last year after spending 25.5 days in space and making a 1.4-million-mile journey around the moon, according to NASA.

Artemis I was the first step of NASA's ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon and, later on, to send a crewed shuttle to Mars.

Artemis II is scheduled to send four astronauts into space in 2024 for a lunar flyby before returning to Earth.

PHOTO: Crew assignments for the four astronauts who will venture around the Moon on Artemis II are Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen.

It will be the first crewed mission aboard NASA's new Orion spacecraft and the first to launch on the agency's new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.

"With Artemis I, we set out to prove that the hardware was ready, that SLS was prepared to launch our astronauts skyward, that Orion was equipped to carry them to the moon and back safely again," said Norman Knight, director of Flight Operations Directorate at NASA. "Artemis I was a resounding success and Artemis II will leverage that by putting humans in the loop."

The mission will take approximately 10 days, but the system will need to undergo massive amounts of testing first to make sure it can support humans living and working in deep space, NASA said.

This will be the first set of missions that NASA has used to send a crew to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, more than 50 years ago.

The mission broke several records including the longest spacewalk and largest lunar samples brought back to Earth and also involved several experiments, including sending five mice into space with the crew.

MORE: On anniversary of NASA's Webb telescope reaching destination, here are the most striking images so far

"Over the course of the Artemis missions, the first woman and the first person of color will take giant leaps, on the lunar surface," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

In total, the Artemis expedition includes four missions, each of which will cost roughly $4.1 billion. The project will cost up to $93 billion by 2025, according to an audit from the NASA Office of the Inspector General.

Artemis III plans to send four astronauts to the moon in 2025 while Artemis IV plans to be the second lunar landing in 2027.

PHOTO: This Nov. 19, 1969 file photo released by NASA shows one of the astronauts of the Apollo 12 space mission on the Moon, standing by the US flag on the Moon and the Saturn V lunar module.

In addition to setting up a permanent base camp on the moon, the program aims to be the gateway to eventual human missions to Mars.

"Under Artemis, we will explore the frontiers of space and push the boundaries of what's possible," said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center. "You may walk on the moon or be one of the many explorers who venture onward to Mars. We're all looking forward to you being a part of our mission."

ABC News' Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.

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Odysseus becomes first US spacecraft to land on moon in over 50 years

By Elise Hammond and Jackie Wattles , CNN

This is the NASA instrument that saved Odysseus' mission

From CNN's Jackie Wattles

NASA's Navigation Doppler Lidar.

Odysseus has now officially made history with its successful lunar touchdown — and none of it could have happened without some fast work from engineers on the ground and a breath-catching save from a NASA payload.

Before descent, Intuitive Machines, which developed the Odysseus lunar lander, revealed crucial pieces of the vehicle's navigation equipment were not working.

Fortunately, NASA — which considers itself one of many customers on this mission — had an experimental instrument already on board Odysseus that could be swapped in to make up for the malfunctioning equipment.

Engineers were able to bypass Odysseus' broken pieces and land using two lasers that are part of NASA's Navigation Doppler Lidar, or NDL, payload.

Here's how the NDL is described in IM-1's press kit:

The NDL is a LIDAR-based (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor composed of an optical head with three small telescopes and a box with electronics and photonics. NDL uses lasers to provide extremely precise velocity and range (distance to the ground) sensing during the descent and landing of the lander. This instrument operates on the same principles of radar, similar to a police radar detector, but uses pulses of light from a laser instead of radio waves and with very high accuracy. This will enhance the capabilities of space vehicles to execute precision navigation and controlled soft landings.

Odysseus is "upright and starting to send data"

After some intense waiting, Intuitive Machines, the company behind the Odysseus lunar landing mission, has confirmed the spacecraft is "upright and starting to send data."

That's a major milestone.

An upright landing potentially puts Odysseus in a better position than even Japan's SLIM "Moon Sniper" mission. SLIM was deemed a success as it made a soft touchdown , but later was revealed to have landed in a position that left its solar panels pointed in the wrong direction, causing that spacecraft to quickly lose power.

"Right now, we are working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface," Intuitive Machines said in a post on social media platform X.

Art in space: Sculpture hitches a ride to the moon on Odysseus lunar lander

From CNN's Jacqui Palumbo

Jeff Koons' "Moon Phases" is seen on the Odysseus lunar lander as it flies over the near side of the moon on Wednesday.

Exchanging the gallery space for a transparent box in  space, the American artist Jeff Koons now has one of his works of art on the moon .

On Thursday, a sculpture called “Moon Phases" hitched a ride on the Odysseus lunar lander as it touched down on the moon. It marked the United States' first landing on the lunar surface in more than 50 years.

The artwork depicts 125 mini-sculptures of the moon contained in a box, measuring about one inch in diameter. “Moon Phases" shows 62 phases of the moon as seen from Earth, 62 phases visible from other viewpoints in space, and one lunar eclipse.

Jeff Koons holds "Moon Phases" before it was attached to the lunar lander.

Each sculpture is inscribed with the name of a groundbreaking figure in human history, including Aristotle, David Bowie, Leonardo da Vinci, Gandhi, Billie Holiday, Gabriel García Márquez, Andy Warhol and Virginia Woolf. Koons “has drawn inspiration from the Moon as a symbol of curiosity and determination,” according to a statement from his gallery, Pace.

But the art market wouldn’t be able to do much with far-flung sculptures "exhibited" in outer space, so there’s a commercial component to Koons’ project as well. Pace Verso, the NFT wing of Pace, is also offering NFTs of each sculpture, while Koons has produced larger, coinciding physical sculptures of his “Moon Phases” to remain on Earth.

NASA reacts to lunar landing: "Great and daring quest"

NASA posted a reaction to the moon mission on social media, saying "Your order was delivered… to the Moon!"

"(Intutive Machines') uncrewed lunar lander landed at 6:23pm ET (2323 UTC), bringing NASA science to the Moon's surface. These instruments will prepare us for future human exploration of the Moon under #Artemis ," the space agency posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson added during the webcast: "Today for the first time in more than a half-century, the US has returned to the moon." "Today is a day that shows the power and promise of NASA's commercial partnerships," he added. "Congratulations to everyone involved in this great and daring quest."

Applause and celebrations could be heard on the Intuitive Machines webcast of the event before the live coverage concluded.

CNN is standing by for additional updates on the spacecraft's status.

Odysseus becomes first US lander to touch down on the moon in over 50 years

Intuitive Machines mechanics, friends and family cheer after confirmation the lunar lander made a touchdown on the moon, in this still from the webcast.

The US-made  Odysseus lunar lander  has made a touchdown on the moon, surpassing its final key milestones — and the odds — to become the first commercial spacecraft to accomplish such a feat, but the condition of the lander remains in question.

Intuitive Machines, however, says the mission has been successful.

"I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface, and we are transmitting," Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus just announced on the webcast. "Welcome to the moon."

Odysseus is the first vehicle launched from the United States to land on the moon’s surface since the  Apollo 17 mission  in 1972.

Mission controllers from Intuitive Machines, the Houston-based company that developed the robotic explorer, confirmed the lander reached the lunar surface Thursday evening.

The uncrewed spacecraft traveled hundreds of thousands of miles from its Florida launch site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the moon before making its final, perilous swoop to the lunar surface.

Odysseus: "Welcome to the moon"

The Odysseus lunar lander, nicknamed  “Odie” or IM-1 , is on the moon's surface and transmitting, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus just announced on the webcast.

"I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface, and we are transmitting," Altemus said. "Welcome to the moon."

The exact state of the lander is not yet clear. But the company has confirmed it has made contact.

The Odysseus lander is "not dead yet"

Mission control is seen in this still from the livestreamed webcast.

Lunar landing missions typically offer moments of uncertainty. And though we're waiting for confirmation of communications, there have been some promising updates:

"We have an onboard fault detection system for our communications that after 15 minutes with lack of communication will power cycle the radios and then after that for another 15 minutes it will then switch antenna pairs, so we have some time here to evaluate," an Intuitive Machines flight controller said on the stream.

"We're not dead yet," they emphasized.

The company has also confirmed a "faint signal" — potentially representing signs of life from the spacecraft.

Intuitive Machines is troubleshooting communications after the expected landing time passes

The 6:24 p.m. ET landing time has come and gone.

Intuitive Machines knew it couldn't make contact with the lander right at the moment of touchdown, but expected to potentially have an answer shortly after.

It's now a waiting game to see whether Intuitive Machines can establish communications.

A good performance from Odysseus' engine

The webcast just announced that the engine is "nominal" — aerospace parlance for working as expected.

The spacecraft is functioning all on its own.

The expected landing time is 6:24 p.m. ET, though there could be wiggle room.

We could learn right at that time if Odysseus made a safe touchdown, or it could take a few minutes, according to the webcast.

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Watch CBS News

NASA is working with SpaceX and Blue Origin to land U.S. astronauts back on the moon

By Bill Whitaker

March 3, 2024 / 7:00 PM EST / CBS News

A small robotic lander built by a private company and carrying a scientific payload for NASA touched down near the south pole of the moon 11 days ago… and promptly tipped over on its side. Even so, it's the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years. 

NASA has a much more ambitious lunar program - called Artemis – which aims to send  people  back to the moon, to establish an outpost at the south pole, and to push on from there to Mars.

We previewed Artemis here in 2021, but there are significant questions now about the program's costs and its timetable. In January NASA announced its new target for a manned landing - late 2026 - a year later than planned. but as we discovered, even  that  may be unrealistic.  

When Artemis I soared into space in November of 2022, it was the beginning of a nearly flawless mission. In its first test flight, NASA's new space launch system rocket sent an empty Orion crew capsule on a 1.4 million mile flyby of the moon before a picture-perfect return to Earth.

The next flight – Artemis II - meant to carry four astronauts on a lunar flyby – was supposed to launch this year, and then a year later Artemis III would land the first woman and first person of color on the moon. It's not working out quite that way.

George Scott: I think it is safe to say, without significant reductions in cost, better cost controls, better planning, this Artemis program on its current trajectory is not sustainable. 

George Scott is NASA's acting inspector general. Don't be misled by the 'acting'; he's been a top agency watchdog for more than five years. While NASA's engineers have their heads in the stars, it's his job to bring them back to Earth, particularly when it comes to costs.

George Scott

George Scott: Right now, we're-- we're estimating that per launch-- the Artemis campaign will cost $4.2 billion per launch.

Bill Whitaker: Per launch?

George Scott: Per launch. That's an incredible amount of money per launch. A lot of that hardware is just going to end up in the ocean, never to be used again.

Bill Whitaker: The-- inspector general for NASA says that the costs for the Artemis program are simply unsustainable. Is he wrong?

Jim Free: We didn't necessarily agree with their conclusions. We, we feel like we've taken an affordable path to do these missions.

Jim Free is NASA's associate administrator, and directly in charge of Artemis. We met him at historic Launch Pad 39b, from which both Apollo and Artemis rockets have flown.

Jim Free: We believe that the rocket we have is best matched for the mission and frankly the only one in the world that can take crews to the moon.

But as George Scott said, most components of that SLS rocket end up in the ocean; they're not reusable. And with the goal of building an outpost on the moon, Artemis will need a lot of those $4.2 billion rockets!  

Bill Whitaker: It's going to take launch after launch after launch to get all that stuff up there.

Jim Free: Yes. So the number of launches is daunting. But it's-- it's hard to get people to the moon.

When America sent Neil Armstrong and 11 more astronauts to the moon a half century ago, they got to the lunar surface aboard landers…owned and operated by NASA. 

Bill Whitaker: You're taking a different approach this time than with Apollo. What's-- what's the difference this time?

Jim Free:  The difference is we're buying it as a service. We're paying someone to take our crews down and take them up.

NASA's Jim Free

That someone is Elon Musk. In 2021, NASA signed a nearly $3 billion contract with his SpaceX to use its new Starship mega-rocket as the lunar lander for the first Artemis astronauts. 

SpaceX is preparing for its third Starship launch atop its enormous super-heavy booster. The first two launches both ended in roughly the same way.

Announcer (during SpaceX broadcast): As you can see, the super-heavy booster has just experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly.

"Rapid unscheduled disassembly" is SpaceX-speak for "our Starship rocket just blew up ," again.

Bill Whitaker: And now you've seen some of the perils of relying on SpaceX.

Jim Free: We've seen some of the challenges they've had on Starship. We need them to launch several times-- to give us the confidence that we can put our crews on there.

Bill Whitaker: But right now, as we sit here today, you have no way of getting the astronauts to the surface of the moon because of these problems that SpaceX has faced?

Jim Free: Because they haven't-- they haven't hit the technical milestones. 

SpaceX's stated plan is to first put its Starship lander into low earth orbit, then launch 10 more starship tankers to pump rocket fuel into the lander in space…

… before sending it onward to meet astronauts in lunar orbit.

Bill Whitaker: And this has never been done before?

Jim Free: There's been small-scale transfers in orbit, but not of this magnitude.

Bill Whitaker: It just sounds incredibly complicated.

Jim Free: It-- it is complicated. There's no doubt about that. It's d-- you don't-- you just-- just launch ten times kind of on a whim.

George Scott: If it's never been done before, chances are it's going to take longer than you think to do it, and to do it successfully, and-- and prove that technology before we trust putting humans on it. There is a long way to go.

NASA Artemis rocket

NASA's contract with SpaceX requires the company to make an un-manned lunar landing with Starship before trying one with astronauts on board. But NASA still says the manned mission can happen in two and a half years.

Bill Whitaker: And that just seems like the time frame we're talking about, the end of 2026, seems ambitious to say the least.

Jim Free: What we're doing is ambitious And it's a great goal to have. To do that--

Bill Whitaker: Is the goal realistic?

Jim Free: I believe it is. I-- I believe it is.

Jim Free's optimism is based on SpaceX's track record with its smaller Falcon rocket. 

Once it got the Falcon up and running, it demonstrated it can launch a lot – 96 times last year alone, with both commercial and government payloads. But so far Starship has yet to reach orbit even once.  

Bill Whitaker: Does that concern you, that that's going to keep pushing that timeline back further--

Jim Free: Of course it absolutely concerns me because we need them to launch multiple times.

SpaceX ignored our multiple requests for an interview or comment. But in an interview with "The Daily Wire" in January, Elon Musk said this:

Elon Musk (in "Daily Wire" interview): We're hoping to have first humans on the moon in less than 5 years.

Jim Free: My view of that is we have a contract with SpaceX that says they're going to launch our crew in the end of 2026.

Why does it really matter when we get back to the moon? Here's why: China has said it plans to send its "taikonauts" to the moon by the end of the decade, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has publicly expressed concern .

Bill Nelson (during 8/8/23 briefing): Naturally, I don't want China to get to the South Pole first with humans and then say, "This is ours, stay out." 

To ensure that the U.S. will plant its flag first, NASA signed a new $3 billion contract last year with Blue Origin , the space company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, to build another lunar lander. And Jim Free is crystal clear that he sees it as an option if SpaceX Starships keep blowing up.  

Jim Free: If we have a problem with one-- we-- we'll have another one to rely on. If we have-- a dependency on a particular aspect in-- in SpaceX or Blue Origin and it doesn't work out, then we have another lander that can take our crews.

In this battle of the star-gazing billionaires, Bezos' Blue Origin has far fewer launches than Musk's SpaceX, and has been far quieter about its ambitions… until now.

John Couluris: So what we're looking to do is not only get to the moon and back, but make it reliable, and repeatable, and low cost. 

John Couluris and Bill Whitaker

John Couluris's title at Blue Origin is "senior vice president of lunar permanence," and it says a lot about the company's ambition.

John Couluris: The landers that Blue Origin's going to be building are reusable. We'll launch them to lunar orbit. And we'll leave them there. And we'll refuel them in orbit, so that-- multiple astronauts can use the same vehicle back and forth.

Our cameras were among the first to be allowed inside Blue Origin's huge complex in Florida, just next to Kennedy Space Center. 

Bill Whitaker: This is where the future is being built.

John Couluris: That's right. This is the main factory floor for the New Glenn rocket.

New Glenn is Blue Origin's first heavy lift rocket. Its maiden launch will be sometime this year.

John Couluris: So you can see over here we have three different second stages already in build here. 

The first New Glenn is already out at Blue Origin's launch complex. It's designed to carry all sorts of payloads, including the lunar lander being built for NASA.  

John Couluris: So this is the Mark 1 lander. We call this our small lander.

Bill Whitaker: This is the small one?

John Couluris: Yes. 

It's actually a mock-up of their cargo lander, in Blue Origin's Florida lobby. John Couluris used to work at SpaceX, and he came over to Blue to help speed things up.

Bill Whitaker: Is there a bit of a space race between you and SpaceX?

John Couluris:  So the country needs competition. We need options. Competition brings innovation.

Blue Origin

Bill Whitaker: But you haven't had anything close to the accomplishments that SpaceX has had at this point, have you?

John Couluris: SpaceX has done some amazing things. And they've changed the narrative for access to space. And Blue Origin's looking to do the same. This lander, we're expecting to land on the moon between 12 and 16 months from today.

Bill Whitaker: 12 and 16 months from today--

John Couluris: Yes. Yes. And I understand I'm saying that publicly. But that's what our team is aiming towards. 

Bill Whitaker: But that's for, that's for the cargo lander. What about humans?

John Couluris: For humans, we're working with NASA on the Artemis V mission. That's planned for 2029. 

That's not so different from Elon Musk's forecast of when SpaceX can land humans back on the moon… even if it doesn't match NASA's. Like the Starship, Blue Origin's lander will require in-space re-fueling, but Couluris insists that it and their rocket will help NASA trim costs.

John Couluris: Our New Glenn vehicle will be-- a reusable vehicle from its first mission. That lander for the astronauts is a reusable lander. So now you're not just taking the equipment and throwing it away. You're reusing it for the next mission.

Bill Whitaker: You do it again, and again, and again. Is that where the cost savings comes in?

John Couluris: Exactly. We are now building with NASA, the infrastructure to ensure lunar permanency. 

Bill Whitaker: You have said that the Artemis program is the beginning, not the end. Tell me, what is the future you see?

Jim Free: I see us landing on Mars. Absolutely see us landing on Mars. But we have to work through the moon to get to mars.

Bill Whitaker: These are magnificent goals, you know, going back to the moon, going to Mars. Do we have the ability to do what we're dreaming of doing?

George Scott: You know, this is NASA. Right? This agency is destined to continue to do great things. There's no question about that. What we're telling the agency is, "Just be more realistic." There's nothing wrong with being optimistic. In fact, it's required. Right? In this business, optimism is required. The question is though, can you also be more realistic?

Produced by Rome Hartman. Associate producer, Sara Kuzmarov. Broadcast associate, Mariah B. Campbell. Edited by Craig Crawford.

  • Blue Origin

Bill Whitaker

Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News.

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How long does it take to get to the moon?

Here we explore how long it takes to get to the moon and the factors that affect the journey to our rocky companion.

how long does it take to travel to the moon? Artist's illustration of an astronaut sitting on the moon looking back at Earth and taking a photo of our home planet with a phone.

  • Traveling at the speed of light
  • Fastest spacecraft
  • Driving to the moon

Q&A with an expert

  • Calculating travel times

Moon mission travel times

Additional resources, bibliography.

If you wanted to go to the moon, how long would it take? 

Well, the answer depends on a number of factors ranging from the positions of Earth and the moon , to whether you want to land on the surface or just zip past, and especially to the technology used to propel you there.

The average travel time to the moon (providing the moon is your intended destination), using current rocket propulsion is approximately three days. The fastest flight to the moon without stopping was achieved by NASA's New Horizons probe when it passed the moon in just 8 hours 35 minutes while en route to Pluto . 

Currently, the fastest crewed flight to the moon was Apollo 8. The spacecraft entered lunar orbit just 69 hours and 8 minutes after launch according to NASA .

Here we take a look at how long a trip to the moon would take using available technology and explore the travel times of previous missions to our lunar companion. 

Related: Missions to the moon: Past, present and future

How far away is the moon?

To find out how long it takes to get to the moon, we first must know how far away it is. 

The average distance between Earth and the moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers), according to NASA. But because the moon does not orbit Earth in a perfect circle, its distance from Earth is not constant. At its closest point to Earth — known as perigee — the moon is about 226,000 miles (363,300 km) away and at its farthest — known as apogee — it's about 251,000 miles (405,500 km) away.

How long would it take to travel to the moon at the speed of light?

Light travels at approximately 186,282 miles per second (299,792 km per second). Therefore, a light shining from the moon would take the following amount of time to reach Earth (or vice versa):  

  • Closest point: 1.2 seconds 
  • Farthest point: 1.4 seconds 
  • Average distance:  1.3 seconds 

How long would it take to travel to the moon on the fastest spacecraft so far?

The fastest spacecraft is NASA's Parker Solar Probe , which keeps breaking its own speed records as it moves closer to the sun. On Nov. 21, 2021, the Parker Solar Probe clocked a top speed of 101 miles (163 kilometers) per second during its 10th close flyby of our star, which translates to a blistering 364,621 mph (586,000 kph). According to a NASA statement , when the Parker Solar Probe comes within 4 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) of the solar surface in December 2024, the spacecraft's speed will top 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 km/h)!

So if you were theoretically able to hitch a ride on the Parker Solar Probe and take it on a detour from its sun-focused mission to travel in a straight line from Earth to the moon, traveling at the speeds the probe reaches during its 10th flyby (101 miles per second), the time it would take you to get to the moon would be:

  • Closest point: 37.2 minutes
  • Farthest point: 41.4 minutes
  • Average distance: 39.4 minutes

How long would it take to drive to the moon?

Let's say you decided to drive to the moon (and that it was actually possible). At an average distance of 238,855 miles (384,400 km) and driving at a constant speed of 60 mph (96 km/h), it would take about 166 days.  

We asked Michael Khan, ESA Senior Mission Analyst some frequently asked questions about travel times to the moon. 

Michael Khan is a Senior Mission Analyst for the European Space Agency (ESA). His work involves studying the orbital mechanics for journeys to planetary bodies including Mars.

And what affects the travel time?

The time it takes to get from one celestial body to another depends largely on the energy that one is willing to expend. Here  "energy" refers  to the effort put in by the launch vehicle and the sum of the manoeuvres of the rocket motors aboard the spacecraft, and the amount of propellant that is used. In space travel, everything boils down to energy. Spaceflight is the clever management of energy.

Some common solutions for transfers to the moon are 1) the Hohmann-like transfer and 2) the Free Return Transfer. The Hohmann Transfer is often referred to as the one that requires the lowest energy, but that is true only if you want the transfer to last only a few days and, in addition, if some constraints on the launch apply. Things get very complicated from there on, so I won't go into details.

The transfer duration for the Hohmann-like transfer is around 5 days. There is some variation in this duration because the moon orbit is eccentric, so its distance from the Earth varies quite a bit with time, and with it, the characteristics of the transfer orbit.

The Free Return transfer is a popular transfer for manned spacecraft. It requires more energy than the Hohmann-like transfer, but it is a lot safer, because its design is such that if the rocket engine fails at the moment you are trying to insert into the orbit around the Moon, the gravity of the Moon  will deflect the orbit exactly such that it returns to the Earth. So even with a defective propulsion system, you can still get the people back safely. The Apollo missions flew on Free Return transfers. They take around 3 days to reach the moon.

Why are journey times a lot slower for spacecraft intending to orbit or land on the target body e.g. Mars compared to those that are just going to fly by?

If you want your spacecraft to enter Mars orbit or to land on the surface, you add a lot of constraints to the design problem. For an orbiter, you have to consider the significant amount of propellant required for orbit insertion, while for a lander, you have to design and build a heat shield that can withstand the loads of atmospheric entry. Usually, this will mean that the arrival velocity of Mars cannot exceed a certain boundary. Adding this constraint to the trajectory optimisation problem will limit the range of solutions you obtain to transfers that are Hohmann-like. This usually leads to an increase in transfer duration.

Calculating travel times to the moon — it's not that straightforward

A problem with the previous calculations is that they measure the distance between Earth and the moon in a straight line and assume the two bodies remain at a constant distance; that is, assuming that when a probe is launched from Earth, the moon would remain the same distance away by the time the probe arrives. 

In reality, however, the distance between Earth and the moon is not constant due to the moon's elliptical orbit, so engineers must calculate the ideal orbits for sending a spacecraft from Earth to the moon. Like throwing a dart at a moving target from a moving vehicle, they must calculate where the moon will be when the spacecraft arrives, not where it is when it leaves Earth. 

Another factor engineers need to take into account when calculating travel times to the moon is whether the mission has the intention of landing on the surface or entering lunar orbit. In these cases, traveling there as fast as possible is not feasible as the spacecraft needs to arrive slowly enough to perform orbit insertion maneuvers. 

More than 140 missions have been launched to the moon, each with a different objective, route and travel time. 

Perhaps the most famous — the crewed Apollo 11 mission — took four days, six hours and 45 minutes to reach the moon. Apollo 10 still holds the record for the fastest speed any humans have ever traveled when it clocked a top speed of while the crew of Apollo 10 traveled 24,791 mph (39,897 kph) relative to Earth as they rocketed back to our planet on May 26, 1969.

The first uncrewed flight test of NASA's Orion spacecraft and space launch system rocket — Artemis 1 — reached the moon on flight day six of its journey and swooped down to just 80 miles (130 km) above the lunar surface to gain a gravitational boost to enter a so-called "distant retrograde orbit." 

Read more about how space navigation works with accurate timekeeping with these resources from NASA . Learn more about how before the days of GPS engineers were able to navigate from Earth to the moon with such precision with this article by Gwendolyn Vines Gettliffe published at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 'ask an engineer' feature. 

Hatfield, M. (2021). Space Dust Presents Opportunities, Challenges as Parker Solar Probe Speeds Back toward the Sun – Parker Solar Probe. [online] blogs.nasa.gov. Available at: https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2021/11/10/space-dust-presents-opportunities-challenges-as-parker-solar-probe-speeds-back-toward-the-sun/ .

NASA (2011). Apollo 8. [online] NASA. Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo8.html .

www.rmg.co.uk. (n.d.). How many people have walked on the Moon? [online] Available at: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/how-many-people-have-walked-on-moon . 

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Daisy Dobrijevic

Daisy Dobrijevic joined Space.com in February 2022 having previously worked for our sister publication All About Space magazine as a staff writer. Before joining us, Daisy completed an editorial internship with the BBC Sky at Night Magazine and worked at the National Space Centre in Leicester, U.K., where she enjoyed communicating space science to the public. In 2021, Daisy completed a PhD in plant physiology and also holds a Master's in Environmental Science, she is currently based in Nottingham, U.K. Daisy is passionate about all things space, with a penchant for solar activity and space weather. She has a strong interest in astrotourism and loves nothing more than a good northern lights chase! 

NASA's tiny CAPSTONE probe celebrates 450 days in orbit around the moon

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  • 23 February 2024
  • Update 23 February 2024

First private Moon lander touches down on lunar surface to make history

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In a historic lunar accomplishment, the first private spacecraft to land successfully on the Moon touched down on 22 February. The spacecraft, named Odysseus and built by Intuitive Machines in Houston, Texas, also became the first US lunar lander since 1972, when the last crew of Apollo astronauts visited the Moon.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00549-z

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Update 23 February 2024 : This story has been updated with information about Odysseus’s fuel.

Update 23 February 2024 : This story has been updated with comment from an engineer not associated with the mission and with the status of the spacecraft on 23 February.

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Fly me to the moon: NASA accepting astronaut applications (video)

NASA wants a new group of astronauts to explore the moon and maybe even Mars.

Astronaut applications to NASA are due on April 2, giving U.S. citizens the chance to fly to the moon and maybe even to Mars if selected.

The requirements are steep: A master's degree in science, technology, engineering or math; three years of professional experience, medical residency or 1,000 pilot-in-command hours for pilots; and passing a long-duration physical. More details are available on the agency's website .

"Astronauts will explore and conduct experiments where humans have never been: The lunar south pole," NASA officials wrote in the announcement. "With NASA's plans for the future of exploration," the agency added, "new astronauts will fly farther into space than ever before on lunar missions and may be the first humans to fly on to Mars ."

Related: NASA graduates new astronaut class as it begins recruiting for more

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer waves at French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, filming from inside the International Space Station, as Fischer worked to install wireless antennas outside the Destiny lab. The spacewalk's main purpose was to replace a failed data relay box. (Image credit: NASA TV)

The last time NASA selected astronaut candidates in 2021, more than 12,000 people applied. From thousands, the American cohort was whittled down to only 10 people. The Americans and two United Arab Emirate astronauts graduated from 2.5 years of basic training Tuesday (March 5).

New recruits are known as astronaut candidates until they complete their basic training, which includes "basic astronaut skills like spacewalking, operating the space station, flying T-38 jet planes and controlling a robotic arm," the agency added.

NASA's first astronaut recruitment was in 1959. In the following 65 years, the agency has recruited 360 people as astronaut candidates, according to agency statistics: 299 men, 61 women; 212 military, 138 civilians; 191 pilots, 159 non-pilots. Almost all of those people made it to space at some point.

RELATED STORIES:

— This International Space Station VR experience lets you explore the ISS… and it’s as amazing as it sounds

— Artemis program will land international astronaut on the moon by end of 2020s, VP Harris says

— The ISS just turned 25, and NASA is getting ready for the end (video)

These days, opportunities are abundant: Possible moon or lunar space station flights for the Artemis program , long-duration missions on the International Space Station , the prospect of new commercial space stations and a variety of spacecraft to fly.

If the astronauts are going to low Earth orbit, there's a choice of SpaceX 's Crew Dragon, Boeing's Starliner or Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. Moon missions would use SpaceX's Starship or Blue Origin's Blue Moon for landings, and NASA's Orion spacecraft (led by Lockheed Martin) for transportation.

Flights will only take up a minority of a typical astronaut career, however, meaning astronauts will spend most of their time supporting other missions on the ground in Mission Control or through development projects.

If you can't qualify with NASA, other opportunities for space may be available. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are running brief, if pricey, trips to suborbital space from time to time. Axiom Space brings commercial astronauts to the ISS for short-duration missions. And there are other space agencies participating in Artemis and ISS that recruit their own astronauts as well.

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Moon Missions

nasa travel to moon

Here are the major missions launched to the Moon. In addition to these missions, there have been CubeSats, small satellites that tend to launch as additional payloads with larger spacecraft.

Key to tables: All times are in UTC. Unless otherwise indicated, missions were launched by the space agencies of the indicated nation's government.

1950s: Dawn of the Space Age

nasa travel to moon

1960s: Race to the Moon

Astronaut and robotic spacecraft on the Moon.

1970s: Sampling the Moon

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1980s: Quiet Moon

No lunar missions were launched in this decade.

1990s: Robots Return

Image of the earth and moon taken from Clementine

2000s: International Moon

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2010s: Delving Deeper

Gravity map of the moon

2020s: Back to the Surface

Moon rising behind a huge NASA rocket

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31 Things to Do for the Big Eclipse This April

On April 8, the moon will blot out the sun along a roughly 4,200-mile-long, 115-mile-wide path across North America. Where will you watch it? Here are some ideas.

A young boy lying on the grass, with black-framed eclipse glasses on, wears a blue jumpsuit with NASA patches on it. He is pressing the glasses to his face with both hands.

By Danielle Dowling

Danielle Dowling, a Times editor with degrees in physics and science education, also reported on last October’s annular eclipse from Texas.

Wherever you go to catch the total solar eclipse on April 8, those three or four minutes of daytime darkness — no matter how spectacular — might not be enough.

You may want to build it out to a weekend’s worth of activities while staying somewhere fun or indulging in some self-care. Or maybe you would prefer to pair this bucket list event with another. After all, it will be about 21 years before another total solar eclipse of this magnitude returns to the contiguous United States.

With the path of totality starting on the Pacific coast of Mexico, heading northeast through 13 U.S. states and ending in Newfoundland, Canada, there are an overwhelming number of eclipse-oriented events to choose from, with something to satisfy just about any desire. Here are 31 options.

Hang out with NASA

Space nerds, kids at heart and actual children may appreciate a little guidance from NASA scientists, who will spread out across numerous celebrations along the eclipse’s path — at free or reasonably priced events in places like Mazatlán, Mexico; Austin, Dallas, Kerrville, Stonewall and Waco, Texas; Carbondale, Ill.; Cleveland; and Niagara Falls, N.Y. NASA has also teamed up with Purdue University and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a day of track tours and STEM symposiums ($20) at the racetrack.

Get hitched

Among astrologers, a solar eclipse represents a new beginning, so it offers a rather auspicious backdrop for nuptials. At Total Eclipse of the Heart in Russellville, Ark. (April 6 to 8), you can come for the weekend of hot air balloons, barbecue and ax throwing, and stay for the mass wedding ceremony, which will be held minutes before the eclipse. Tickets are $100 for each day’s festivities (there’s no extra fee to get married); register for the ceremony at totaleclipserussellville.com/elope . At the Texclipse Music Festival in Junction, Texas (April 6 to 8), you can exchange vows en masse during the eclipse, as well as treat yourself to local entertainment and a chili cook-off. A weekend pass is $135, and the marriage fee is $100, which includes 10 photographs from the ceremony. For each festival, you will still need to apply for a marriage license beforehand (you’ll probably want to get on that as soon as possible).

Choose your soundtrack

Texas dominates the musical offerings with some big-name lineups. At the Texas Eclipse festival in Burnet (April 5 to 9), prepare to have your senses flooded. In addition to more than 100 acts, including Tiga , the Golden Dawn Arkestra and the Disco Biscuits , the festival will offer a dizzying array of entertainment, including an immersive experience by the arts collective Meow Wolf . A four-day general admission pass is $349, and accommodations range from car camping ($175) to a glamping tent ($1,750). In Waco, the Eclipse Over Texas festival will present free concerts, with Band of Horses on April 5 and Big Boi and Arrested Development on April 6. And over in Austin, at the Moody Amphitheater in Waterloo Park, Vampire Weekend will serenade the sun as it slips into shadow on April 8 (it’s also the frontman Ezra Koenig’s 40th birthday). The show is sold out, but resale tickets are available through platforms like StubHub and Ticketmaster .

Arkansas will also bring the noise. Fans of underground music may want to head to Hot Springs, where the Ecliptic Festival (April 5 to 8) will feature acts like Blonde Redhead , Sun Ra Arkestra , Mary Lattimore , Deerhoof and Quintron . A four-day pass is $385, and day passes start at $70. Glamping packages range from $1,350 to $1,650; if you bring your own tent, camping costs $85 a night, or $300 for the weekend. About 200 miles northeast, in Dyess, you can celebrate the Man in Black before the sky turns black at Johnny Cash’s boyhood home . The event’s full weekend primitive camping package ($400) will get you a 20-by-20-foot spot to park and car camp from April 5 to 9, as well as four tickets to the Arkansas Roots Music Festival, taking place there on April 6. It will also get you four tickets to the NASA Lunch and Learn event on April 7, and four pairs of Johnny Cash Boyhood Home eclipse glasses. Unfortunately, Dyess lies just outside the path of totality, so you’ll need to drive about an hour west to see the eclipse in its full glory.

With the bluegrass musician Ricky Skaggs as one of the top names on its lineup, the Solar Strings festival (April 5 to 8) will fill its 700-plus-acre site in the Missouri Ozarks with the sounds of guitars, banjos, fiddles and more. A four-day general admission pass that includes car camping is $145; glamping packages are also available.

Ride the rails or hit the slopes

A few spots are still available aboard the Solar Eclipse Limited , whose fully restored Pullman cars will leave Penn Station in New York on April 7, headed for Niagara Falls, N.Y. There, the train will serve as a mini-hotel, providing food and accommodations as you take in the celestial sights. If its more-than-$8,000 price tag is a little too rich, you can travel to the village of Arcade, in western New York, and take a trip on the vintage Arcade & Attica Railroad , which will leave at 2 p.m. on April 8 and make a stop to view the totality at 3:19 p.m. Tickets are $22 for adults, $19 for children. If you prefer zipping through the snow, Smugglers’ Notch in Jeffersonville, Vt., is holding a weekend-long celebration capped off by a Winter Eclipse Carnival from noon to 4 p.m. on April 8.

Make a run for the border

Since the eclipse will start in Mexico and wrap up in eastern Canada, you have the option to go in either direction. If you head south, you’ll most likely be blessed with great weather (the probability of cloud cover in most Mexican towns and cities along the path averages about 20 to 30 percent). Mazatlán is the safest bet. Hotel rooms are still available and there’s an expansive boardwalk where you and your fellow eclipse watchers can gather to view the totality, which will last 4 minutes 27 seconds there.

Up in Canada, the rainbow that hovers above Niagara Falls will turn red, as blue and green light waves are scattered during totality. Prime eclipse-viewing spots in the area include the SkyWheel , the butterfly conservatory and Queen Victoria Park , where the Niagara Symphony Orchestra will kick off a free rock concert as the eclipse reaches its peak. In Montreal, you’ll be able to pair skyline views with daytime darkness on an island in the St. Lawrence River. Parc Jean-Drapeau has teamed up with the Space for Life planetarium to offer an afternoon of education and entertainment before the sun has its moment, all at no charge. The only drawback is that Montreal is on the edge of the path of totality, which means it will be in darkness for just a little over two minutes. (On the plus side, you’ll be in Montreal .)

Entertain the kids

If you’re taking your children to see the eclipse, they will need distractions. What’s better than an indoor water park, like the one at the Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Ohio? Near the centerline of the eclipse’s path, it’s well situated, and its viewing party will offer free wolf ears for the kids and moon pies for everyone. A family suite that includes unlimited access to the park averages nearly $330 a night. You can also find child-friendly activities if you’re willing to travel back in time. Kinmundy Log Cabin Village in Kinmundy, Ill., will open its grounds to visitors from April 6 to 8, and while you won’t be able to stay in one of its 19th-century log cabins, you can explore them, with some occupied by volunteers re-enacting pioneer life. There will be a bonfire each night, and food trucks will be on site on April 7 and 8. Camping and parking for all three days is $150. At the Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, N.Y., the third-largest living museum in the United States, experience life as it was in New York State from the 1790s to 1900. From April 5 to 7, you can attend a magic-lantern show, write a celestially themed poem, and sample 19th-century eclipse-themed treats for $17. On the day of the eclipse, $250 will get you and a carload of friends into the viewing area; individual tickets start at $55.

Treat yourself

Add some aahs to your oohs with the Moon Shadow package at La Cantera Resort & Spa in San Antonio, which includes an opening-night reception, a complimentary bottle of bubbly and a viewing party, starting at $3,500 for a three-night stay for two. Or how about a 15-day cruise through the Panama Canal — with a chance to witness the eclipse at sea near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico? Interior rooms are still available for $1,199 on the Emerald Princess , departing from Los Angeles on April 5. Or perhaps you have always wanted to roll down the highway in a luxury R.V., which becomes an asset if the weather takes a turn for the worse and clearer skies lie just a few hours’ drive away. Spot2Nite.com offers packages starting at $625 a night that combine R.V. rentals with campground sites from Texas to Ohio.

Fly the darkened skies

The best thing about viewing an eclipse from an airplane? “You don’t have to worry about clouds because you’re high above them. And at 35,000 to 40,000 feet, you’re seeing the eclipse against a much clearer, transparent sky as opposed to being at ground level,” said Joseph Rao, an associate and guest lecturer at Hayden Planetarium and an avid eclipse chaser who has seen 13 totalities — five aboard an aircraft . Delta Air Lines has been advertising path-of-totality flights from Austin (sold out) and Dallas-Fort Worth to Detroit. Southwest Airlines (which is running a sweepstakes to win a seat) also offers scheduled flights along the path. The downsides of an air-clipse? “You’re experiencing the event in a sort of sterile environment,” Mr. Rao said. Also, the angle of the sun in the sky at the time of totality may not line up with the view from a typical airplane window, which could limit some passengers’ ability to see it unless the pilots bank or set a special course — as a few reportedly did during the 2017 total eclipse.

Know Before You Go

Mind the centerline: When picking the spot to view the eclipse, remember that the closer you are to the middle of the path, the longer the eclipse will last. As you plan your trip, consult an eclipse map for the prime spots.

Factor in traffic: In the United States, there are about 32 million people living along the eclipse’s path, and tons more will be heading toward it. Give yourself extra time.

Bring some cash: If you’re headed to a rural area, the hordes joining you there will most likely tax the infrastructure. If the internet goes down, your credit card will become just another piece of plastic, and your phone a shiny brick.

Have backup eye protection: Most festivals will be handing out free solar eclipse glasses, but if you lose them, you won’t be able to track the moon as it slides over the sun (during the brief few minutes of totality, you can safely look at it without protective eyewear , according to NASA). Check the American Astronomical Society’s list of trusted manufacturers and sellers, then place an order now. Like, right now.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

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This image from the lander’s narrow-field-of-view camera was retrieved on Feb. 27. It shows spacecraft hardware in the foreground, and the gaping maw of a 2-billion-year-old lunar crater beyond. It’s approximately 500 meters to the near lip of the crater, and another 500 meters to its far side. Inky black space extends above the horizon.

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    NASA recently published a written plan detailing its Artemis program, including the latest Phase 1 plans to land astronauts on the Moon again within four years. That plan accompanies the agency's concept for surface sustainability released earlier this year, which calls for an incremental buildup of infrastructure on the surface later this ...

  25. Moon Missions

    Here are the major missions launched to the Moon. In addition to these missions, there have been CubeSats, small satellites that tend to launch as additional payloads with larger spacecraft. Key to tables: All times are in UTC. Unless otherwise indicated, missions were launched by the space agencies of the indicated nation's government. 1950s: Dawn […]

  26. Total Solar Eclipse of 2024: 31 Things to Do

    Hang out with NASA. Space nerds, kids at heart and actual children may appreciate a little guidance from NASA scientists, who will spread out across numerous celebrations along the eclipse's ...

  27. Odysseus Lands on the Moon

    Odysseus took six NASA payloads along for the ride and their data will prepare us for future human exploration of the Moon under Artemis. This landing marked the United States' first lunar landing since Apollo 17, as well as the first landing as part of our Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, which aims to expand the lunar economy ...