01/04/2026
Tonight, for the first time since 1972, humans travel beyond low Earth orbit. (finally!)
Artemis II lifts off at 6:24 PM EDT from Kennedy Space Center.
Four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen — will fly past the Moon and farther into space than any human has ever been.
This is not a landing. It’s a verification flight: does everything actually work, with people on board, in deep space?
The timing matters. Just last week, at NASA’s “Ignition” event on March 24, the agency unveiled a series of major initiatives designed to establish an enduring American presence on the Moon — including a phased approach to building a permanent lunar base, crewed lunar surface landings targeting every six months beyond Artemis V, and up to 30 robotic landings starting in 2027. On the 25 March, we had our second Ground Control event at Mesh, where Professor Svein-Erik Hamran from Universitetet i Oslo (UiO) laid out his Moon project…timing matters indeed!
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman framed it plainly: “The clock is running in this great-power competition, and success or failure will be measured in months, not years.”
Artemis II is the first real step in that sequence.
And Norwegian technology is on board.
NORCE (formerly Clara Venture Labs) has delivered advanced ceramic water filters to the European Service Module powering Orion. In space there is no gravity to move water — so nitrogen gas under pressure, up to 3.5 bar, does the job. The filter keeps nitrogen and water strictly separated, because gas entering the water system can take the entire supply offline. The ceramic filter elements are supplied by Keranor in Oslo, integrated into NORCE’s system. Small components. Life-critical function.
KSAT - Kongsberg Satellite Services, with antennas in Tromsø and Svalbard, will track the precise position of the Orion capsule throughout the mission.
We’re entering a sustained period of human activity beyond Earth orbit. The infrastructure for that future is being built now — and Norwegian precision engineering is part of it.
Godspeed, Artemis II 🌕
(link to NASA´s live channel on YouTube in the comments)
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