Three NASA astronauts, one from the Canadian space agency, will fly around the moon during the Artemis II mission, scheduled for 2024. That would be the first step in the human landfall on Earth's natural satellites a year or two later, the first mention of the Apollo mission.
The announcement of the astronaut is one of a series of events planned for 2023 as NASA looks to maintain momentum for the Artemis program. NASA Director Bill Nelson said that 2022 is one of the most successful years in NASA's history, but "there is still much to look forward to" in 2023.
Robot on the Moon
In addition to Artemis II, NASA is collaborating with a number of private companies to send a fleet of robot moon landing craft to the moon. The first two flights, operated by two commercial companies Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic, are scheduled to launch this year, under a contract with NASA.
Intuitive Machines hopes to announce the project around mid-March and May this year and will take four to seven days for their landing ship to reach the moon's surface. Astrobotic has said that the Peregrine spacecraft is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2023.
Another moon landing contract
Later this year, NASA plans to award another lunar landing contract to send its astronauts to and from the moon's surface. SpaceX has won a contract for its first and second landings. But now, NASA wants another supplier and the competition for that contract has become fierce.
Blue Origin - a a joint venture of aerospace founded by Jeff Bezos - and Dynetics - a subsidiary of Leidos - lost to SpaceX in the first round. The two are bidding for the contract again, although this time Northrop Grumman - a company that was a member of the Blue Origin group before - has been loyal and is currently collaborating with Dynetics. Blue Origin has chosen two other partners for their group: Boeing and Astrobotic.
Boeing is finally about to carry out the mission with the first crew
Boeing is about to have a major test in 2023. Last year, the airline last launched its Starliner spacecraft on a demonstration mission to the International Space Station without any crew members on board.
Finally, the company will find a way to put the astronauts on the spacecraft, giving NASA another spacecraft to choose from. NASA said the Boeing delay was due to the lack of work to resolve problems with the spacecraft's propulsion engines during the flight, as well as traffic to the space station.
SpaceX will continue to bring space planets and cargo to the space station for NASA using the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft.
Many new missiles
This year, new missiles can also be seen launched. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between lockheed Martin and Boeing, has finally prepared for the first launch of a vulcan missile, using a BE-4 engine provided by Blue Origin. The missile will be used to launch national security satellites to the Pentagon, as well as satellites to Amazon's Kuiper internet system.
Relativity Space, a newly established company based in California, used 3D printers to produce its missile, which is expected to launch a Terran 1 missile earlier this year. The missile laboratory is looking to launch its Electron rocket from NASA's Wallops Island facility earlier this year as well as after the December launch was delayed.
More people in space
SpaceX plans to launch another group of civilian astronauts into orbit later this year as part of the Polaris program funded by Jared Isaacman, a businessman and explorer.
As part of the mission, the crew plans to make the first civil spacewalk.
Blue Origin also intends to continue taking tourists to space using New Shepard near Orbit missile. Last year, the missile had a failed engine when there were no crew members on board. The company has been investigating any problems with the Federal Aviation Administration before continuing to bring private citizens who have purchased tickets for space travel.
