NASA Prepares to Launch Artemis II, First Moon Mission in 50 Years

NASA is set to launch its Artemis II mission as early as April 1, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They will send four astronauts on a historic journey around the Moon deep-space travel systems and prepare for future human exploration. The crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—will spend about 10 days traveling beyond Earth’s orbit and looping around the Moon before returning home.

Artemis II will mark the first time humans travel to the Moon’s vicinity since the Apollo missions ended in 1972. Unlike earlier missions that landed on the lunar surface, this flight is designed as a test mission. The astronauts will not land but instead follow a “free-return trajectory,” such as life support, navigation, communication, and the spacecraft’s heat shield.