A busy schedule awaits NASA in 2024. As a highlight, the Artemis II mission, expected at the end of next year, with the manned flight around the Moon.
Unless there is a change in the calendar, the Artemis II mission will take place in November or December 2024. This will undoubtedly be NASA’s most important event next year. In fact, it is nothing more and nothing less about taking a crew on a trip around the Moon, before returning. Objective: prepare for the return of astronauts to the Moon.
But the next twelve months will not only be punctuated by the preparation of Artemis II. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has a busy schedule — like every year. As 2023 comes to an end, the agency is taking the opportunity, not to present an assessment of what it has done, but to project itself into the future.
The conquest of the Moon, a big piece of NASA
The continued development of the human landing system (HLS), preparation for Artemis III which will take place in the years to come, the design of a ground vehicle to travel on the natural satellite, or the future establishment of the orbital station around the Moon (Gateway). Here’s an overview of what NASA will be doing in 2024.
These programs, already underway, sometimes for years, are only a fraction of the agency’s activities. The International Space Station will continue to receive attention: scientific experiments on board, crew rotation, the next manned test of the Boeing Starliner capsule are on the menu. Even if NASA is looking further afield now, the ISS is not (yet) neglected.
Also what to expect from 2024? We can cite the highly anticipated flight of the X-59. This plane must manage to break the sound barrier by producing an almost silent supersonic “bang”. We can mention the departure of the Europa Clipper mission towards Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Or the next total eclipse of the Sun, which will affect North America.
Many other missions are also listed: VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover), PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1), CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services), PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem mission), etc. NASA warns in passing that its video is not exhaustive. This is only a fragment of his program.
In the rest of the world, there are other space events that will deserve your full attention. Rather than making a complete inventory, we have highlighted the ten missions that are the most significant for next year. In particular, we are awaiting the inaugural flight of Ariane 6, a new attempt at the Starship rocket and the departure of the Chinese Chang’e 6 mission.
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