The Artemis programme – retrospective and forward-look.

Graham writes ...

I have been waiting with some anticipation (since 1972!) for people to return to the moon and it finally happened in April with the crewed lunar flyby of the Artemis 2 mission. This is hopefully the first of many such missions under the Artemis banner, and I couldn’t resist blogging about this, despite the fact that all you interested readers will have probably overdosed on the media coverage of Artemis 2. If you have any comments or questions about this blog or the Artemis 2 mission, please contact me using the comments section at the end of this post. 

My header picture (above) shows ‘iconic’ images of Earth from the moon. Upper left is the first such picture, in its raw unenhanced form, taken by the uncrewed Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft in 1966. I can actually remember this picture appearing on the front pages of newspapers in August of that year, and being very excited and impressed as a 16-year-old astro-enthusiast. Then came the remarkable crewed Apollo 8 mission in December 1968, when people left ‘cradle Earth’ for the first time, resulting in the beautiful colour image of ‘Earth rise’. And now, lower right, we have the setting Earth as imaged by the Artemis 2 crew. Clearly, NASA have released a huge amount of multi-media information about Artemis 2, which can be found here.  However, if you would like a brief taster of the mission in pictures I have posted a small gallery of images below. I would suggest looking at them on a tablet or laptop if at all possible. 

Image gallery.

The crew of Artemis 2. Top Left: Pilot Victor Glover, Top Centre: Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Top Right: Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Bottom: Commander Reid Wiseman.

Artemis 2 launch, 1 April 2026, 18.35 EDT. Picture Credit: Jeff Seibert, AmericaSpace

Sequence of lunar surface images taken during the lunar flyby.

Solar eclipse from the far side of the moon. The solar atmosphere extends beyond the silhouette of the moon.

A picture of 'home' from Artemis 2.

The setting Earth.

Artemis 2 Mission Control at the Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Centre at the Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas.

The Artemis 2 Orion capsule after the rigours of a lunar return atmospheric re-entry.

The European Service Module.

The configuration of the Orion capsule and the service module.

As an interesting aside, the media coverage of the mission would suggest that the crewed element of the Artemis mission was American in design and manufacture. However, this is very far from the truth. The spacecraft comprises two components, the Orion capsule where the crew are accommodated and the cylindrical service module. In fact, the latter was designed and built in Europe by Airbus Space under the leadership of the European Space Agency (ESA). Of course, this element is vital to the mission and the crew as it provides life support, propulsion, attitude control, electrical power, thermal control and communications. The service module is adapted from the European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) which was used as a cargo carrier supplying the ISS up until 2014. As the name implies, the ATV was capable of automated rendezvous and docking with the station. The European service module does incorporate one element of American design, and that is the main engine that is used for orbital manoeuvring. This is adapted from the Orbital Manoeuvring System (OMS) engine used by the Space Shuttle before its retirement in 2011. Therein lies an interesting story of a chance meeting with an American scientist and engineer while I was on a summer walking holiday in Wales in 2014. He turned out to be working on the problem of adapting the Shuttle technology for use on the Artemis programme. To read more on this go here.

The European Service Module in assembly. Picture credit: AirBus Space (ESA).

Attitude and orbit thrusters on the service module. Picture credit: ESA.

Artemis 2 service module orbit adjustment thrusters.

Artemis programme forward-look
 
So, what are the prospects for the immediate future (next year) and longer term for Artemis? Given the current uncertainty in funding for NASA, it’s difficult to see much beyond 2028 when the first US lunar landing in nearly 60 years is planned to take place. To some degree, the future also depends on how successful the Chinese are in achieving a crewed lunar landing during this period. It could be said that the current US Administration has turned the objectives of Artemis into a political race, in the same way that the Apollo programme was – although then of course the competition was Russian. If this turns out to be true, Artemis may suffer the same fate as Apollo – once this goal is achieved the programme may be cancelled.

However, the short-term prospects for next year are fairly clear. The original timeline of the programme was that Artemis 3 was to be the first lunar landing in 2027. However, ‘someone’ in the organisation decided that a very important hardware element of the mission would not have been tested in the space environment. To achieve a successful landing, some kind of landing vehicle is also required! You may recall that there was a series of test flights in the Apollo programme before Apollo 11 touched down in the Sea of Tranquillity. One of those was Apollo 9, which was an Earth orbit mission to test the lunar lander. NASA has now adopted the same philosophy for Artemis 3 which is scheduled for next year. 

Impression of SpaceX's Starship lunar lander on the moon's surface. Picture credit: SpaceX.

Similar impression of Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander. Picture credit: Blue Origin.

There are currently two contenders for the Artemis landing craft, both of them originating from private companies. Consequently, there may be two test flights in Earth orbit in 2027. The uncertainty in this observation is down to the fact that neither company is sure that the design and development of their lander vehicles will be mature enough to be tested within the time scale. However, ignoring this important proviso, the first contender is SpaceX’s famous Starship vehicle, and the second Blue Origin’s Blue Moon vehicle. All I can say is that whatever happens, in whatever timescale, I am greatly looking forward to it, bearing in mind that I’m not getting any younger (“I wish I’d been born later!”).

Space and faith.

Reid Wiseman.

Returning to Artemis 2, you may have read reports on social media about the mission commander, Reid Wiseman, having a sudden conversion to Christianity after splash down and recovery at the end of mission. This turns out to be ‘false news’, although it is reported that he did have an emotional reaction upon meeting with a Navy Chaplin on the recovery carrier. It is reported that he was somewhat overwhelmed by the whole experience, and in particular the “awesome beauty” of the solar eclipse that he witnessed while on the far side of the moon, and also the intense experience of the re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The latter was particularly hazardous as the Orion capsule is travelling at around 25,000 mph for a lunar return trajectory re-entry, rather than about 18,000 mph which is typical for a re-entry from Earth orbit.

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Victor Glover

Another member of the crew, mission pilot Victor Glover, is a devout Christian and an outspoken astronaut who integrates his faith with his career. He was unusually open about his Christian faith throughout the Artemis 2 mission, and it became one of the most talked-about personal dimensions of the flight. Before the launch, he said he would be praying the Lord’s Prayer during the countdown and asked people to pray for the crew and their families. One of his most quoted remarks in the media coverage of the mission was “There aren’t any on top of rockets, either!”, adapting the old military adage about there not being any atheists in foxholes.

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It would seem that the intense experience of travelling to the moon brings out an emotional, and in some a spiritual reaction in individuals who are otherwise thought of as being very ‘down to Earth’ – if I can use that phrase! There are a number of examples of this during the Apollo era, when 12 men walked on the moon, and another 15 who spent many hours in lunar orbit (the latter includes non-landing missions 8, 10 and 13). The instances that stand out in my memory are:
 

• the Apollo 8 mission, when the 3 astronauts James Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders took turns to read the first ten verses on Genesis 1 from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve 1968. This caused a significant stir in the media at the time, and had a surprisingly long cultural and institutional afterlife for NASA, even though it lasted only a few minutes.

 

• the first meal to be consumed on another world was the Lord’s supper, when astronaut Edwin Aldrin took communion after touchdown and before the first lunar surface walk on Apollo 11. This was not broadcast explicitly, as NASA was still subject to legal challenge after the Apollo 8 Genesis ‘incident’.  After landing, Aldrin radioed Earth simply asking listeners to pause and reflect in their own way. At the time, Aldrin was an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church near Houston and his pastor had prepared a small communion kit for the mission containing a tiny chalice, wine and bread.

 

• Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin had one of the most dramatic post-mission spiritual transformations of any Apollo astronaut. Before Apollo 15, Irwin was already a Christian, but after returning from the Moon he described the experience as having profoundly deepened his faith. He felt powerfully the presence of God on the moon, prompting him remarkably to resign from NASA to become a full-time evangelist. In his new role, he often described standing on the Moon and seeing Earth suspended in darkness as emotionally overwhelming — not in a vague mystical sense, but as something that reinforced belief in divine creation and human smallness.

 

• Apollo 17 Commander, and (still) the last man to stand on the moon, Eugene Cernan described looking back at Earth from the lunar surface as sitting on “God’s front porch”, a profound spiritual experience that convinced him of the existence of a Creator. He often described his lunar surface experience in spiritual and transcendent terms.

It seems that lunar missions have a history of bringing faith issues to the fore, as witnessed by lunar flight astronauts, countering the popular view that they should be neutral, objective and detached from their emotions. For those who were Christians, grounded in the knowledge that the Universe is God’s creation, science is simply God’s revelation in Nature. Basically, research and scientific discovery can be an act of worship for those scientists who share a faith. I think this is summed up nicely in a favourite quote by Francis Collins “Science is not threatened by God; it is enhanced. God is certainly not threatened by science; He made it all possible.” (1)

Finally, even if robots and sensors could explore the Universe for us, relieving us of the risk of deep space travel, there is something important and human about stepping on to the surface of other worlds ourselves, of seeing our planetary home at a distance, and of returning to family and community with new eyes of wonder and appreciation.
 
Graham Swinerd
 
Southampton, UK
May 2026
 
Picture credits: All images are courtesy of NASA, unless stated otherwise.
 
(1) Francis Collins, The Language of God, Pocket Books, 2007, p. 233.