As the four Artemis II astronauts prepare for their historic flyby of the moon on Monday, Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut, says this mission signals a leap in developments for future space travel.
Speaking with Global News, Bondar said the mission will push humans farther into deep space than they have travelled in decades, exposing the crew to conditions not experienced since the Apollo era.
The mission, known as Artemis II, will send four astronauts around the moon before returning to Earth on April 10, 2026.
The crew, made up of three Americans and one Canadian, will travel a total of more than 400,000 kilometres from Earth — farther than any human has travelled before — and then loop behind the moon and return home.
“People liken this to Apollo 8, but they were much closer,” she said. “This flyby will be about 4,000 miles out (from the moon), so they’ll be exposed to the background radiation of space and subjected to any solar wind or solar storms.”
Bondar said that distance will give the astronauts a rare vantage point, both scientifically and visually.
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“They are really out there in deep space, where we haven’t been before,” she said. “They are going to be looking at the dark moon differently and take pictures of the sun in ways we have not been able to see because human beings have not been there.”
The crew has recently passed a new milestone of being closer to the moon than to Earth in their deep space journey.
“The Earth is quite small and the moon is definitely getting bigger,” pilot Victor Glover said from space.
Beyond the visuals, the mission is also a test of how the human body responds to space flight over longer distances.
“They look pretty good actually,” Bondar said of the crew. “They do have these smartwatches on now that will be looking at aspects of their physiology, their sleep cycle and some of the stresses they will face.”
That data will help researchers better understand how to prepare astronauts for future missions deeper into space.
Bondar also pointed to well-documented physical changes astronauts experience in orbit, including what is often referred to as “bird leg syndrome.”
“Your body gets rid of about two litres of blood volume through the kidneys,” she said. “In space, you don’t need as much, whereas on Earth you need about five litres because gravity pulls blood into your legs.”
She said Artemis II is part of a broader effort to refine how humans and technology work together in space.
“They’re trying to look at ways of making these kinds of missions not just smarter, but safer.”
“These early flights are all about trying to understand the technology,” she added. “These are really early days and about learning to make things smarter for the next flight, and the next flight.”
The Artemis II crew is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean following its lunar flyby, marking a key milestone in NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon and eventually travel to Mars.
Live updates can be followed on NASA’s official website, including a stream of the Orion’s journey through space.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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