From ‘bird leg syndrome’ to solar storms: Roberta Bondar breaks down the mission of Artemis II – National
As the four Artemis II astronauts prepare for their historic moon flight on Monday, Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut, says the mission represents a leap forward in space travel’s future.
Speaking to Global News, Bondar said the mission will push humans deeper into space than they have traveled in decades, putting crews in situations not seen since the Apollo era.
The mission, known as Artemis II, will send four astronauts to the moon before returning to Earth on April 10, 2026.
The team, made up of three Americans and one Canadian, will travel more than 400,000 kilometers from Earth – farther than any human has ever traveled before – and then land on the moon and return home.
“People compare this to Apollo 8, but they were very close,” he said. “This flyby will be about 4,000 miles (to the moon), so it will be exposed to background cosmic rays and face any solar wind or solar storms.”
Bondar said the distance will give astronauts a rare vantage point, both scientifically and visually.
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“They are definitely in a deep place, where we have never been before,” he said. “They will look at the dark moon in a different way and photograph the sun in a way that we did not see because people were not there.”
The crew recently passed a new milestone of being closer to the moon than to Earth on their deep space mission.
“The earth is really small and the moon is definitely getting bigger,” said pilot Victor Glover from space.
Beyond visuals, the mission is also a test of how the human body reacts to long-distance space flight.
“They look really good,” Bondar said of the group. “They have these smartwatches now that will be looking at aspects of their physiology, their sleep cycle and some of the stress they’re going to face.”
That data will help researchers better understand how to prepare astronauts for future deep-space missions.
Bondar also pointed out the physical changes astronauts experience in orbit, including what is often called “bird’s leg syndrome.”
“Your body removes about two liters of blood through the kidneys,” he said. “In space you don’t need that much, but on Earth you need five liters because gravity pulls the blood to your legs.”
He said Artemis II is part of a broader effort to refine the way people and technology work together in space.
“They’re trying to look at ways to make these types of machines not only smarter, but safer.”
“These early flights are about trying to understand the technology,” he added. “These are early days and it’s about learning to do things smarter on the next flight, and the next flight.”
The Artemis II crew is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean following its moon landing, marking a milestone in NASA’s mission to return humans to the moon and eventually to Mars.
Live updates can be followed on NASA’s official website, including a sequence of Orion’s journey into space.
– Via files from The Canadian Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
