(Radio Iowa) – The only Iowa State University graduate to walk in space is thrilled to see NASA is planning to send humans into lunar orbit next month for first time in more than a half-century. The Artemis Two mission is scheduled for launch as soon as February 6th, and former astronaut Clay Anderson says it’s an important test of the spacecraft and systems for future lunar ventures. “The Artemis I mission was to test the vehicle, test the idea, make sure everything functions, but now you’re going to put humans in there,” Anderson says, “so you have to worry about things like air conditioning, and exercise, and the toilet system, and the food system, and all those things that humans require when we travel to the moon and eventually land on the surface.”

The plan calls for an Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts to orbit the moon as part of a 10-day mission. It’s the first crewed moon mission since Apollo 17 in December of 1972. Anderson says some colleagues are concerned about a flight to the moon without more tests of the Orion capsule, the European service module and S-L-S rocket. He says there are always risks involved with any spaceflight. “It’s like anything,” Anderson says. “There’s always going to be a concern, and you can’t test everything so much that you’re perfectly certain that nothing’s going to go wrong. That’s why we explore. That’s why we do this thing in the first place.”

If this mission is successful, NASA hopes to launch Artemis III to land on the moon next year. Plans call for using Space X’s Starship vehicle to transport astronauts to the lunar surface. Anderson says it’s hard to predict whether the lunar landing will take place in 2027. “You have to plan, you have to put it out there, you have to have a schedule you’re working toward,” Anderson says. “Then, as long as things go well, and systems are working, and when they come back from this mission, and they feel comfortable they’ve knocked out a lot of the problems that need to be solved, who knows? They could very well go then.”

After several failures, the Starship finally flew a successful test mission in October. Anderson, a Nebraska native, flew two missions aboard the International Space Station, spending a total of 167 days in orbit. He received a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University in 1983, and had returned to ISU as a distinguished faculty fellow in 2013 to teach aerospace engineering.