NASA is officially launching for its first trip around the moon in 54 years!

The mission, called Artemis II, launches the evening of April 1st from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and is intended to send the crew around the Moon and back to Earth without landing on the moon, marking the furthest point that humans have travelled from the Earth. 

The Artemis missions have been in the works since before an announcement on NASA’s site in June 2020, revealing avionics testing for the Artemis I mission: an uncrewed mission to orbit the moon. This time, NASA intends to evolve its efforts for space travel by incorporating people in a spacecraft called the Orion.

The crew, consisting of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, intend to spend 10 days on the mission to check on systems and direct the ship in its course to the moon. The goal of the mission itself is to pave the way for deep space travel for humans and possible future moon landings, which could then help to further research in those areas and aid astronomical advancements.

Dunn, M. (2026, April 1). NASA begins fueling rocket to launch astronauts on the first lunar trip in half a century. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/nasa-artemis-moon-launch-055040ce0579ec238d0ec9fcb0278ed3

NASA. (2023, February 24). Our Artemis crew. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/our-artemis-crew/

NASA. (2020, June 30). NASA Checks Out SLS Core Stage Avionics for Artemis I Mission. https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/artemis/2020/06/