SEATTLE — Did you know Seattle’s Museum of Flight features an entire exhibit dedicated to Project Apollo? Some of those missions paved the way for the Artemis II mission launch that is set for today.
Ted Huetter with the Museum of Flight says that the scientific timeline leading up to the Artemis II Mission starts with Apollo 8 in 1968.
“Apollo 8 was a similar mission — in that it was just go to the moon, loop around, come back down to earth, which is essentially what the Artemis II mission is,” Huetter said.
It continued with Apollo 13 in 1970.
“Instead of landing, because they couldn’t do that anymore, they were put on a trajectory around the moon to send them back to Earth just like Artemis is going to do,” Huetter said.
Both of those crews flew within 100 miles of the moon. Artemis II will fly 4000-6000 miles further.
“The moon is going to be so far away, it will be about basketball size, like if you hold out your hand, kind of like that. Beyond that is the Earth; they are way out there,” he said.
That’s like standing in Japan and looking at the moon in Seattle!
“The moon will be in their full view with the Earth behind it, and that itself is kind of mind-boggling. You’re in deep space at that point,” Huetter said.
The Artemis crew and the capsule they are staying in are bigger than Apollo’s, but he said they have similar operating systems.
He tells us that, just like Apollo 8 and 13, Artemis II will set the stage for decades of future developments
“There are other plans of how we are going to land on the moon and establish a base there, but this is the one that will make it happen,” Huetter said.