NASA’s Artemis 2 mission will send a crew of astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, marking a major moment in American spaceflight history. What better way to honor that history than to send a bunch of precious memorabilia along for the ride?
The Artemis 2 flight kit will include several artifacts that reflect the country’s long-standing commitment to aerospace innovation and exploration, NASA announced Wednesday. These objects will fly with the crew aboard the Orion spacecraft, launched atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Artemis 2 will be the first crewed test flight for SLS and Orion—an important stepping stone to future lunar landings.
“This mission will bring together pieces of our early spaceflight success, defining moments from human spaceflight, and providing clues to where we’re headed,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement. “Amidst America’s 250th anniversary, Orion will carry astronauts around the Moon while advancing our history to the next chapter beyond Earth.”
From archives to deep space
The oldest of these space artifacts dates back to the Wright brothers’ first powered flight in 1903. The Artemis 2 flight kit will contain 1 square inch (6.5 square centimeters) of muslin fabric from the original Wright Flyer, the world’s first powered, heavier-than-air flying machine.
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum loaned a fabric swatch to NASA for the Artemis 2 mission, but this isn’t the first time a piece of it will go into space. A small square cut out of fabric previously flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery during the 1985 STS-51D mission.
Also flying on Artemis 2 will be the small American flag aboard the very first shuttle mission (STS-1), the last mission (STS-135), and NASA’s first test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. Another flag that was supposed to fly on the Apollo 18 mission before its cancellation in 1970 will finally make its delayed journey to space on Artemis 2.
The flight kit will also include a copy of a photo negative from the 1964 Ranger 7 mission, NASA’s first successful lunar landing after 13 failed attempts. The robotic spacecraft flashed more than 4,300 images of the moon on its way back to Earth before accidentally crashing into the moon, helping NASA identify safe landing sites for the Apollo astronauts.
Launching historical objects on NASA missions is a decades-old tradition. During the Artemis 1 mission, which sent Orion on an unmanned orbit around the Moon in 2022, the spacecraft carried several artifacts from the Apollo missions, including a Moon rock collected during the first lunar landing.
Count down to get started
The stacked SLS and Orion spacecraft rolled into the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on January 17. The agency is now in the final stages of launch preparation, and the first available window opens on February 6.
NASA did not set a target date for the Artemis 2 launch but said the mission could begin in the February window. The exact time will largely depend on the outcome of the rocket fuel test, or the wetsuit practice, which is currently scheduled for February 2.
Anticipation is building as NASA prepares to send a crew of astronauts back to the lunar surface for the first time in more than half a century. The Artemis 2 crew—and the historic artifacts they bring with them—will travel farther from Earth than any that have gone before.
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