New observations reveal that permanently shadowed regions at the lunar poles might contain less water ice than astronauts were hoping for.
At 06:25 p.m. EDT (03:25 p.m. PDT) on April 1st, the Artemis II mission lifted off from the historic Launch Pad-39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The four-person crew - consisting of Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot), and mission specialists Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen - began the ten-day journey that would take them around the Moon and back to Earth. This mission is the first time astronauts will travel beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and will serve as a "dress rehearsal" for future missions to the lunar surface.

