Payette: Astronaut training ahead of Artemis II and potentially game-changing SpaceX rocket

Aretemis II is set for launch in November, 2024, and it will carry a crew of four to go on a test flight that will take them once around the moon and back.

Former astronaut Julie Payette explained to CTV News that the process to be chosen to get into the program is not easy.

"The odds are not really in your favour because there are a lot of applicants but just a few positions," she said.

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Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hanson will be the sole Canadian on board the four-person Artemis II mission. Hanson is the sole member of the crew who will be on his rookie flight after working at NASA for more than 15 years.

"He's held many senior positions, so he knows exactly the ropes of how to be an astronaut," said Payette.

The four crew members will be undergoing mission-specific training, Payette said.

"It is all geared to this particular mission," she said. "This mission is completely new. No one has ever flown it before."

The Artemis II mission will involve doing a lap around the moon and back. SOURCE: NASA

Artemis II is a new vehicle, Payette said, and the crew will be onboard to test the ship. The more complex mission and landing will come later.

SpaceX staff are waiting to see if they will be permitted to launch its enormous 120-metre rocket.

"It's completely revolutionary," said Payette. "The way SpaceX does an orbital flight is it sends the rocket and then recovers the rocket, and the entire second stage is actually the lander which will also come back on earth.

"Contrary to the way we've done a moon landing in the past where we have a staging in orbit and then transition to the moon and then a lander detached, this one is all in one. If that works, and it's a real challenge, then it will change the way we look at transit to the moon and then eventually transit to another planet."

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Thursday night, April 6, 2023. The rocket is carrying the Intelsat 40e communications satellite and NASA's Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution instrument, or TEMPO. (Craig Bailey/Florida Today via AP)