Where NASA is about to send humans back to the Moon

The Artemis 1 Moon mission - the US project that "paved the way" for the return of humans to the Moon in 2024 - is about to take off later this month.

Rick LaBrode has worked at NASA for 37 years, but he said the US mission to the Moon has so far been his 'highest moment in his career'. This will be the first time a human capsule has been sent to the Moon since the Apollo mission in 1972.

Rick LaBrode is the chief flight officer for Artemis 1 - the first stage of the Artemis mission - which is scheduled to take off at the end of August.

The Artemis-1 mission was programmed to operate autonomously, with no crew. The mission's goal was to test the effectiveness of the heat shield on the Orion crew capsule (aka capsule), located at the top of the launch system.

"This is really more exciting than anything I've ever been in," LaBrode told reporters at the US Space Agency's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.

The 60-year-old told AFP that the day before launch could be a long night to look forward to - and he could hardly sleep for long.

"I'll be so excited. I won't be able to get much sleep, that's for sure," he said, in front of the iconic giant screens of the mission control system.

The White Flight Control Room at the Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center in Houston.

NASA's Artemis mission officially kicked off in 2017. According to NASA, the mission's goal is to put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. Through the project, NASA will explore multiple lunar surfaces and establish the first permanent presence there.

Artemis 1 will begin with the launch of the world's most powerful rocket - the Space Launch System (SLS).

The explosion will propel the Orion spacecraft into orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft will stay in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.

In 2024, astronauts will board Orion for the same trip, Americans will once again set foot on the Moon.

For the duration of the Artemis 1 mission, a group of NASA personnel will stay on Mission Control 24 hours a day. The center has been remodeled and improved for this special event. Teams have also been training for this moment for three years.

'This is a whole new journey, with a brand new rocket, a brand new spaceship, a whole new control center,' said Brian Perry, Flight Dynamics Officer, who will be assisting Orion's orbiter shortly after the launch, told AFP.

The process of preparing for the historic flight

Astronauts trained in the world's largest swimming pool at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, with a length of more than 200 meters, a width of 100 meters and a depth of 40 meters.

Astronauts train in the "world's largest" swimming pool.

One side of the Neutral Buoyancy laboratory is modeled after the International Space Station and is submerged underwater.

On the other hand, the environment on the Moon is gradually being recreated at the bottom of the swimming pool, accompanied by giant model rocks.

Lisa Shore, deputy director of the lab, said: 'It's only been in the last few months that we have started pouring sand into the bottom of the pool. We just received that big rock two weeks ago. It's all very new to us and there's a lot of work in progress."

Under water, astronauts can experience the feeling of almost weightlessness. To prepare for trips to the Moon, the simulated environment needed to replicate the gravity of one-sixth of the Moon's.

The astronauts were guided remotely from a room above the pool, with a 4-second communication delay they would experience on the surface of the Moon.

Six astronauts were trained. The remaining six will be trained at the end of September and will be wearing new space suits made by NASA specifically for the Artemis 1 Moon mission.

"The laboratory's golden age was when we were still flying the space shuttle and assembling the space station," John Haas, the lab's chief of staff, told AFP.

At the time, 400 training sessions with astronauts in full spacesuits took place annually, compared with about 150 today. However, the Artemis program made the whole lab rethink about increasing the number of training sessions.

The 'new golden age' is coming

Each training session in the pool can last up to 6 hours.

'It's like running a marathon twice, but with your own hands,' astronaut Victor Glover told AFP. Glover returned to Earth last year after spending six months on the International Space Station.

Using virtual reality headsets, astronauts can get used to walking in dark conditions at the Moon's South Pole, where Artemis will land.

There, the Sun barely rises above the horizon, meaning there are always long shadows that reduce the astronauts' vision.

Astronauts will also have to familiarize themselves with new spacecraft such as the Orion capsule and its onboard equipment.

The simulated flight training module of the Future Moon space station's Habitation and Logistics Outpost module is on display at the Gateway Facility in Houston.

During the simulation, the crews were trained to dock at the future Moon space station Gateway.

Elsewhere at the space center, a replica of the Orion capsule, measuring just 9 m3 for four people, is in use.

"They do a lot of emergency exit training here," Debbie Korth, deputy director of the Orion program, told AFP.

Korth, who has worked on Orion for more than a decade, said everyone in Houston is excited about a return to the Moon and the future of NASA.

'I feel like this is like a new golden age,' she said.

In particular, NASA creates conditions for people to send their names to fly around the Moon on the Orion spacecraft, by registering through the agency's website.