It's not quite one small step for man just yet, but it still feels like one giant leap for mankind as NASA gets ready to fire up the rockets for its Artemis 2 mission.
It's hard to believe it's been so long, but as the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, the four-person crew is set to etch their names in the history books as we once again put the Moon in our sights.
Although the long-awaited Artemis 2 mission has been hit by a slew of delays, it's finally set to blast off on Wednesday, April 1, at 6:24 pm EDT, with fans able to tune in to watch the two-hour launch window.
The human race is back on its space obsession, and even though Elon Musk has dialled back his plans to colonize Mars by 2030 to focus on the Moon, the White House recently made an ominous statement declaring that the USA isn't letting go of the Moon anytime soon. With such a monumental mission just over the horizon, you might be wondering what the Artemis II astronauts will get paid for their efforts.
Who are the Artemis 2 astronauts?
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A brave quartet of astronauts from NASA and the Canadian Space Agency is suiting up, with the USA represented by Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as Jeremy Hansen flies the flag for Canada.
You might remember Koch as the astronaut who has the most continuous time in space by a woman, and as part of Artemis II, she'll break another record as the first woman to ever go beyond low Earth orbit.
While Glover has reiterated, "We're all on this journey together," we hope that rings true when the four of them are crammed into their Orion spacecraft for 10 days.
Even though there's no escaping the importance of Artemis II, it's only performing a flyby of the Moon some 6,513 km away from the far-side lunar surface.
The mission's main purpose is to monitor spacecraft systems while gathering intel on the effects of deep space travel and trajectory correction burns.
Considering we haven't been to the Moon since 1972's Apollo 17 mission, it's fair to say things have changed a lot since then in terms of space travel, but how has it changed in terms of wages?
What will the Artemis 2 astronauts get paid for going to the Moon?
Unfortunately for NASA astronauts, they aren't exactly NFL stars or Taylor Swift, meaning they might not get paid as much as you'd think.
There was plenty of discourse surrounding astronaut wages when Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore got stuck in space for 286 days. The pair have since retired, although many were shocked they could've been paid as little as $4 a day for their overtime stuck in the stars.
In terms of the reported salaries for Wiseman. Glover, Koch, and Hansen, take note that NASA astronauts are considered federal employees who are paid a fixed annual salary that typically ranges from $104,000 to $161,000 (depending on experience). As previously noted, they don't get overtime or hazard pay, but instead, are given an 'incidental' stipend of around $4–$5 per day. Considering Artemis II is a 10-day mission, they can expect a $50 bonus in their bank balance. Although there are standard federal employee benefits of healthcare, pension, and paid leave, the four Artemis II astronauts won't really get paid anything extra on this daring mission back to the Moon.
Still, as we imagine it's the dream of most astronauts to get to the Moon one day, there are sure to be millions of little kids out there who've fantasized about this very mission and would've done it for free at some point in their lives.
So yeah, zooming around the moon for the first time since 1972 might sound like you deserve celebrity status, but it seems like the paycheck doesn't always match.