Humans will return to the Moon's neighborhood with the launch of Artemis II Wednesday.
The scheduled launch is around 5:24pm Wednesday Central Time with four astronauts on board.
UT-Dallas Professor Dr. Phil Anderson is Director of the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences.
"We had the Artemis I launch, which was unmanned, and then we have this launch with the four astronauts," Dr. Anderson said. "They are not actually orbiting the Moon. They're just going out and doing a slingshot around the Moon."
If this flight is successful, the Artemis III flight will do testing on rendezvous with other spacecraft next year.
Dr. Anderson sees the early Artemis flights leading up to an eventually lunar landing similarly to the early Apollo flights.
"Eight through ten was a step-by-step process getting close to the launch," he said. "Practicing and getting ready and making sure everything is working properly and having all the procedures going."
As of now, the Artemis IV flight, scheduled for early 2028, will land astronauts back on the Moon for the first time since 1972.
