Boeing builds launch vehicle for mission to land first woman on the moon

NASA readied its Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday to begin preparations for a May launch of the Artemis I mission, which will lay the groundwork for the first crewed NASA lunar landing since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

While the first flight is unmanned, subsequent Artemis missions — Artemis II is set for 2024 — aim to land the first woman and person of color on the moon.

The mission has significant ties to Washington state. Boeing is the prime contractor for the design, development, test, and production of Artemis I’s launch vehicle. The aviation company built integral pieces of the rocket, known as core stage, used to deliver the Artemis I mission, sent to the Kennedy Space Center for integration into the Space Launch System. Meanwhile, Boeing builds the core stages for the Artemis II and III missions.

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The Artemis missions have ambitious goals. The objective is to build a colony on the moon with the intention to provide a landing stage for deep space exploration to Mars.

“NASA’s Artemis program will lead humanity forward to the Moon and prepare us for the next giant leap, the exploration of Mars,” a project summary reads. “It has been almost 50 years since astronauts last walked on the lunar surface during the Apollo program, and since then the robotic exploration of deep space has seen decades of technological advancement and scientific discoveries. For the last 20 years, humans have continuously lived and worked aboard the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth, preparing for the day we move farther into the solar system.”

Watch ongoing live coverage of NASA’s Artemis I mission here.

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