The writer is a science commentator
Humanity is on the cusp of going back to the future. Artemis II, a crewed Nasa mission intended to take astronauts around the Moon and which had been due to lift off after February 8, is a reboot of the legendary Apollo lunar programme of the 1960s and 1970s (Artemis is Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology).
On Monday night, however, there was a hiccup: a “wet dress rehearsal”, which involves filling tanks with liquid propellant but stopping short of ignition, was halted because of a hydrogen leak. The launch has now been pushed back to March. While the new space race is often portrayed in terms of geopolitical rivalry and the rush for untapped lunar minerals, the setback reminds us how technically challenging and dangerous it is to sling people off the Earth, even to somewhere as familiar as the Moon, and bring them home safely.