TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – The countdown has begun. NASA’s Artemis II launch clock began Monday afternoon for tomorrow’s manned liftoff, which will fly beyond the moon and back to Earth.
The Tyler Junior College Planetarium can provide a 3-D look at the journey.
Thanks to the TJC Planetarium, Hartweg can simulate the journey. As its name implies, this is the second Artemis mission.
“So, the first happened just a couple of years ago with Artemis I. And that was an uncrewed mission that went around the moon,” Hartweg said.
“And what’s special about this is this will actually be further out than even the Apollo missions. So, this will be the furthest from Earth that humans have ever traveled,” Hartweg said.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Kristine Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be in the hot seats when 100 million horsepower pushes them into space.
If all those horses were standing shoulder to shoulder, they would fill Tyler and Longview with a little room to spare.
But maybe it’s easier to imagine 160,000 corvette engines. That would only take up about 19 acres.
But I digress. The astronauts will endure three to four Gs of force before becoming weightless.
“This is all in preparation, make sure everything works and is good for the Artemis III mission which is when people will land back on the moon,” Hartweg said.
Hartweg said the goal of the Artemis program is more than coming back to Earth with samples.
“The extent of what they’re hoping to do is create a long-term presence on the Moon. And so, the Artemis mission is kind of the first steps in doing that,” Hartweg said.
So, it’s another small step toward lunar presence, but it’s a giant leap getting there. I think I’ve heard that somewhere before.
NASA says the weather looks 80 percent good for the Artemis II launch scheduled for 6:24 p.m. Eastern time on April 1.
The show will air in the planetarium on Tuesdays through Saturdays at 3 p.m. Tickets can be bought here.
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