Moon mission with Canada's Jeremy Hansen remains on schedule for November 2024: NASA
CTV
Officials at NASA say the mission that will send a Canadian astronaut into lunar space for the first time is still on track to launch in November of next year.
Reality seems to be sinking in for the man poised to become the first Canadian astronaut to fly around the moon.
"I already knew going to the moon was hard," Jeremy Hansen quipped Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center during an update on Artemis II, the first crewed voyage to lunar space in more than half a century.
"That's why we're doing it -- I already knew it was hard. But boy, it's harder than I thought."
It was awe, not apprehension, in Hansen's voice as he and his fellow crew members described their first up-close look at the systems, the hardware and the people that will propel them into space as early as next November.
"Seeing the capsule, for all of us, sent shivers down our spines as we saw it for the first time inside," he said. "It makes an impression."
That November 2024 timeline remains intact, officials say, with the caveat that things could still change given all the different components and variables that must line up for the mission to remain on schedule.
The last time human beings travelled that far was during the final Apollo mission in 1972. Artemis II will make Canada and the U.S. the only two countries to ever venture to the region beyond the dark side of the moon.
