NASA Unveils New Images of Orion Spacecraft for Crewed Lunar Mission in 2025

On February 18, IT Home reported that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has recently released new images of the Orion spacecraft. This spacecraft is scheduled to carry four astronauts on a lunar flyby mission in September 2025, under the mission name Artemis II.

The crew module of the Orion spacecraft is currently undergoing final touches at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers are working on “installing external protective back panels and thermal insulation layers, and planning to conduct a vacuum test on the spacecraft this spring.”

The four astronauts are NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, NASA Pilot Victor Glover (who will be the first African American to leave Low Earth Orbit), NASA Mission Specialist Christina Koch (the first woman to venture beyond Low Earth Orbit), and Canadian Space Agency Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (the first non-American astronaut).

They will be the first group of astronauts to ride on the Orion spacecraft. Previously, the Orion spacecraft conducted two unmanned flight missions: the Artemis I lunar orbit mission at the end of 2022 and a short Earth orbit mission in 2014, both without life support systems installed.

According to IT Home, Artemis II will be the first crewed mission of the Artemis lunar program, aiming to achieve crewed moon landing with Artemis III. Due to technical issues, both the Artemis II and III missions were delayed in January 2024, with Artemis II postponed by 9 months to September 2025 and Artemis III delayed by about a year to 2026.

The entire Artemis lunar program aims to utilize water resources at the lunar South Pole to establish a human settlement. Over 30 countries, including Canada, have signed the US-led Artemis Accords, intending to follow guidelines for peaceful space exploration and providing hardware support for lunar missions in certain scenarios.