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The crew of the Artemis II launch mission to fly by the moon, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen react before boarding the astronaut van for their drive to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. April 1, 2026.
Some astronautical experts have described the safe return of four crew members of NASA’s Artemis moon mission to Earth as historic.
Dr Thabani Mazibuko, chairperson of the South African Space Technology for Sustainable Development Foundation, says South Africa played a key role in the Artemis Two mission.
Mazibuko has appealed to the government to invest in technology and science in schools.
He says, “I am very happy that the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, through an entity called the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), with which we often travel to schools. SANSA signed the Artemis Accords, which then enabled the ground stations stationed in Hartebeeshoek to assist with tracking and communication. So South Africa played a very critical role in the Artemis II mission, but we need our politicians to do more by improving our schools and making this knowledge accessible for those entering into science and technology to become known for being inventors instead of consumers.”
