Name: First manned Moon mission in 50 years is 'ready to go', says Nasa | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-02-28T12:03:39.000Z
Duration: 4 min 25 s
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Now, more than 50 years after humans last traveled to the moon, NASA has now set a date for sending astronauts.

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The Artemis 2 mission has been scheduled to launch on 6 March, after its 98 meter tall rocket successfully completed final tests.

The spacecraft will lift off from the Kennedy Space center in Florida for a 10 day voyage around the far side of the moon, the part we never actually get to see.

We can speak to Sean Cleveland, our spacecraft engineer at Airbus who's been working on the European part of the Orion spacecraft.

Tell us about the work that you're doing and how it's going to play into this.

Yes, so I'm working for Airbus out here in Germany and we're building the European Service module now.

That is the module that sits behind the crew module on the Orion spacecraft.

So it's a really crucial part of the Orion spacecraft.

And in fact, those astronauts can't get to the moon without us.

We've got the propulsion system on board, a big engine that actually pushes Orion to the moon.

We've got all of the consumables on board that the astronauts need to survive and then obviously big solar arrays that are generating all the power that the spacecraft needs.

So really it's a crucial part of the mission that we're part of.

So tell us a little bit more about this mission and just why it is so significant.

Yeah, so this Artemis 2 is the second in a series of missions that will be going back to the moon, but

going back with a bit more of a long term vision this time.

So the Apollo program was all about taking astronauts on short duration missions to the moon.

They would touch down, they would do scientific experiments and then they would come home again.

With Artemis, we're trying to test out technologies and build up some infrastructure on and around the moon that will allow us to really sort of make use of the moon, particularly when we're looking towards going to other planets like Mars in the future.

Every time we do a story about going to the moon and we always ask this question, but

Why have has man and woman not been back to the moon in 50 years?

Everything that we do to take a human into space requires, you know, thousands and thousands of engineers and many hours.

Technology has moved along so much and again, we often hear, I don't know if it's really true that We've got more tech in our mobile phones than they had in the first moon landings.

I mean, the technology is there as we can see now, but

ultimately there has to be the motivation and we need the collaboration of many different nations.

So we see that today with NASA working with the European Space Agency to put this into space.

I mean, it is expensive and we need that collaboration to make things like this possible.

So tell us a little bit more about what it's hoped will be achieved when this mission goes ahead for the sort of long term space projects.

Yes, so Artemis 2 is just the first one with crew.

So we're taking a crew of four astronauts around the moon.

So they won't land on the moon with this mission.

But we're hoping that that will come with Artemis 3 and beyond.

We'll then start to take astronauts down to the lunar surface.

We'll be doing experiments, we'll be lear more, we'll be testing technologies out and then we hope as well to have an orbiting space station around the moon.

And all of this will be a sort of platform for going further in the future.

When you say going further, is this about having a sort of longer term mission, a sort of base on the moon?

We really believe that by going to the moon, that's the only way we can really develop the technologies and sort of understand what it takes to be able to do that on, let's say, Mars.

I mean, if you go to Mars, you go there for many months at a time.

It's difficult, it's challenging for the human body.

It's challenging to sort of sustain yourself.

So if we can prove those technologies and keep astronauts alive for semi long duration missions on the lunar surface, then we'll be able to do that on Mars in the future.

What do you think the timeframe is for those kind of things?

Having a permanent base on the moon and actually humans getting to Mars?

It's quite difficult to say because timelines are changing all the time.

But what I do see now in the space industry is a lot of excitement.

There are a lot of players now getting involved in this lunar exploration.

I mean, we see it both from the agencies, but also from private industry as well.

So I think it's only a matter of time now.

It just takes the ambition which I think we've all got.

But we just need to make sure that our technology is perfect and in the right shape to be able to take us to Mars.

I mean, I really hope that we see that in the next 10 to 15 years, Shankle, were really interesting, and

the best of luck with the work that you're doing there.

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First manned Moon mission in 50 years is 'ready to go', says Nasa | BBC News

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