ATLANTA — NASA’s Artemis II mission launched on Wednesday evening, sending astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
“This is one of the reasons I got into spaceflight to begin with,” Georgia Tech Professor John Christian said.
Helping make the launch possible were 17 Georgia companies and several researchers.
Christian used to work with NASA, helping develop the navigation algorithms used during the first Artemis launch.
He said the mission is about setting up to make the moon a resource for Earth.
“Making it really an extension of humanity, an extension of our economy, an extension of everything that we do to not just be Earth, but to really include the moon for the first time,” Christian said.
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Georgia’s contribution goes beyond research.
“There’s one rocket launching today, but it was a team of thousands that made that possible,” Vern Heyer, owner of Griffin-based GM Dicron, said.
Heyer engineered parts for the International Space Station in the 1980s.
NASA turned to Heyer’s Griffin-based company to build custom metalwork to help hold the Artemis rocket together.
“We actually put that little assembly together, so there are pieces of the SLS, that we made the parts that hold it together,” Heyer said. “Some of these parts we made two years ago.
In all, seventeen Georgia businesses contributed to Wednesday’s launch.
U.S. Rep. Brian Jack visited three companies in his district shortly before the launch.
“It’s incredibly inspiring,” Jack said. “For any Georgian watching, just take pride in knowing that 17 companies in our state help support this mission this afternoon and make history as we return astronauts to the moon.”