NASA shows the cockpit of the spacecraft in which astronauts will fly around the Moon: photo

At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (USA), NASA technical teams are working on the cockpit of the spacecraft in which the astronauts of the Artemis II mission will fly around the Moon. SSPDaily tells about it.

Photos of the spacecraft's interior were posted on Orion Spacecraft's account on Platform X (formerly Twitter).

"Teams are finalizing the interior, installing protective panels and insulation on the outside, and preparing Orion for vacuum testing this spring," the statement said.

The Artemis II mission will launch no earlier than September 2025 with four astronauts on board.

According to NASA' s website, during this flight, astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft must confirm that all its systems are working according to the crew's plan in a real deep space environment.

The Artemis II crew will travel approximately 4,600 miles (about 7,500 kilometers) beyond the back side of the Moon. From this favorable vantage point, they will be able to see the Earth and the Moon through Orion's windows, with the Moon in the foreground and the Earth nearly a quarter of a million miles (400 thousand kilometers) away in the background.

Taking into account the length of the return trip (about four days), the mission is expected to last about 10 days.

The Orion spacecraft has already been in space twice, but in missions without a crew, without life support components installed.

After the successful completion of the Artemis II mission, NASA will begin preparations to land astronauts on the Moon for the first time after a break of more than half a century.

Earlier, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced the names of four astronauts who will fly around the Moon on the Artemis II spacecraft for the first time in half a century .