Florida space coast cities abuzz before Nasa's Artemis launch: At the doorstep of the future'

"The liftoff will represent a celebration, not only for the achievement of finally dispatching humans back to the moon after years of delays and budget overruns in the Artemis program, but for the culmination and confirmation of a more local renaissance 15 years in the making."

"In 2011, after Nasa's 30-year space shuttle program was abandoned, the space coast was a region in steep decline. Thousands of workers at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) lost their jobs, property prices collapsed, businesses folded and the local economy fell into a black hole."

"It will also be a solid step forward for the space agency's newly announced ambition to build a permanent lunar base from which it plans future missions to Mars."

Artemis II will launch four astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian, from Cape Canaveral, marking the first human moon mission since 1972. This event symbolizes a new era for NASA and the space coast of Florida, which faced economic decline after the shuttle program ended in 2011. The mission aims to establish a permanent lunar base and is a celebration of overcoming years of delays and budget issues in the Artemis program, reflecting a local renaissance in the space industry.

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