More than 50 years after Apollo 17 in 1972, human beings have returned to deep space around the Moon. On April 1, 2026, NASA’s Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT. The crew aboard the Orion spacecraft is made up of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. The mission is historic not only because it is the first crewed lunar flyby in over half a century, but also because Hansen is set to become the first Canadian to travel around the Moon. NASA has also described the crew as including the first woman and the first person of color on a lunar mission. (nasa.gov)
Artemis II is not a landing mission. Instead, it is a major test flight for the future of lunar exploration. After launch, Orion orbited Earth twice so the crew and ground teams could check the spacecraft’s systems while still relatively close to home. The astronauts then carried out a manual piloting test near the rocket’s upper stage, practiced key operations for future missions, and confirmed that Orion’s life-support, communication, and navigation systems were ready for deep space. After that, a powerful burn sent the spacecraft toward the Moon on a free-return path, a route that uses the Moon’s gravity to help bring the crew back to Earth. The full mission is planned to last about 10 days. (nasa.gov)
The most dramatic moment came on April 6, when Orion flew behind the Moon. NASA said the crew was expected to make scientific observations for about six hours, lose contact briefly while passing behind the lunar far side, come within about 4,070 miles of the surface, and reach a maximum distance of 252,706 miles from Earth, farther than the Apollo 13 crew traveled in 1970. By April 7, Orion had exited the Moon’s sphere of influence and started the journey home. Artemis II has already shown that a new age of exploration is no longer a dream. It is happening now, and it is preparing the way for future Moon landings and, one day, missions to Mars. (nasa.gov)










