Here’s your chance to be part of space history and the future of space exploration.
NASA needs people to passively track the Artemis ll Orion spacecraft as the crewed mission travels to the Moon and back to Earth, according to a NASA press release.
The Artemis ll test flight mission is scheduled for launch no later than April 2026. It will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on an approximately 10-day mission around the Moon.
The space agency says Artemis ll will prove the critical life-support systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration are ready. It will also allow the crew to practice operations essential to the success of Artemis lll.
The Artemis ll flight is the first crewed mission under NASA’s Artemis program and is the precursor to Artemis lll, which will land the first woman and the next man on the moon. That mission is scheduled for no earlier than mid-2027.
Artemis ll will rely on NASA’s Near Space Network and Deep Space Network for primary communication and tracking support throughout its launch, orbit and reentry. But as NASA increases its focus on commercialization of space, the agency wants to better understand the capabilities of the private sector.
“By offering this opportunity to the broader aerospace community, we can identify available tracking capabilities outside the government,” said Kevin Coggins, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation Program (SCaN) in the release. “This data will help inform our transition to a commercial-first approach, ultimately strengthening the infrastructure needed to support Artemis missions and our long-term Moon to Mars objectives.”
The SCaN program operates and manages communications and navigation systems that are critical to every NASA mission. More than 100 NASA and non-NASA missions rely on SCaN’s two networks: the Near Space Network and the Deep Space Network. Everything from spacecraft commands to astronauts aboard the International Space Station to scientific data from the James Webb Space Telescope to data from satellites monitoring Earth’s weather are sent and received through the SCaN program.
The volunteer tracking program NASA plans for Artemis ll builds off its first volunteer tracking program tested during the Artemis l mission in November 2022. That 25-day mission sent the uncrewed Orion spacecraft nearly 270,000 miles beyond the Moon to test the Space Launch System (SLS) and spacecraft for the first time before a crewed mission. 18 participants were selected to passively track the Orion spacecraft; ten volunteers eventually took part.
The participants—international space agencies, academic institutions, commercial companies, nonprofits and private citizens—attempted to receive Orion’s signal and then use their own ground antennas to passively track and measure changes in the radio waves transmitted by the spacecraft. The volunteers took measurements during three phases of the mission: Orion’s journey to the Moon, the orbit around the Moon and the trip back to Earth.
“We were happy with the engagement and have spent the last few months really understanding what the data can mean for future Artemis or lunar tracking efforts,” said John Hudiburg, SCaN Mission Integration and Commitment Manager in a NASA release.
“NASA gained an understanding of the broader community’s capabilities, the participating organizations got to show what they can do in terms of tracking, and the Flight Dynamics Facility learned how to analyze unconventional external tracking data,” said Flight Dynamics Facility Deputy Operations Director Jason Laing, in the same NASA story. “Now, we can take the lessons learned and apply them to potential tracking opportunities for future missions.”
That future mission is Artemis ll.
Specific information about the volunteer tracking program and application information can be found here. Responses are due by Monday, October 27.
Frank Graff interviews astronaut Christina Koch.