Back to the Moon: What to Know About Artemis II

 Back to the Moon: What to Know About Artemis II

By T.J. Muscaro
April 01, 2026 Updated: April 02, 2026

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For the first time in more than half a century, people around the world can look to the sky and know that somewhere up there, a crew of astronauts is on its way to the Moon.



At 6:35 p.m. ET on April 1, 2026, they launched from the pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the largest spacecraft ever built to carry humans into deep space, and atop the most powerful human-rated rocket NASA has ever constructed.

The crew consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot), and Christina Koch (mission specialist), along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist).

A 10-Day Pathfinder Mission

Artemis II is not a landing mission. Instead, it is a 10-day voyage designed to test every system of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with humans aboard for the first time. The mission will take the astronauts on a trajectory around the far side of the Moon, reaching a maximum distance of roughly 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) from Earth—farther than any humans have ever traveled before.

The primary goal is to confirm that Orion’s life support, navigation, and heat shield systems function perfectly in deep space. Upon return, the spacecraft will slam into Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 25,000 mph (40,000 km/h), generating temperatures of about 5,000°F (2,760°C). A successful re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean will pave the way for Artemis III, which aims to land the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface as early as 2028.

The Crew: A Diverse and Historic Team

· Reid Wiseman (Commander): A veteran of a 165-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Wiseman leads the crew and will be responsible for all major decisions during the flight.
· Victor Glover (Pilot): Making history as the first Black astronaut to travel to the Moon. Glover previously served as the pilot for SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission and spent 168 days on the ISS.
· Christina Koch (Mission Specialist): The first woman to be assigned to a lunar mission. Koch holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days) and participated in the first all-female spacewalk.
· Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist): A colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and the first non-American to journey to the Moon. Hansen’s role represents a major milestone for the Canadian Space Agency and international partnership under the Artemis Accords.

A Renewed Space Race and Global Competition

The Artemis II launch comes amid a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape. While NASA emphasizes peaceful international cooperation through the Artemis Accords (now signed by over 50 nations), China has announced its own plans to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030.

Experts see this as the beginning of a new era of lunar competition—not just for national prestige, but for strategic resources, including water ice at the Moon’s south pole, which could be converted into drinking water, oxygen, and rocket fuel for future missions to Mars.

Unlike the Cold War-era Apollo program, which was a direct sprint to the Moon, Artemis is designed to build a sustainable presence. The long-term goal is to establish a permanent lunar base and the Lunar Gateway space station in orbit around the Moon, serving as a staging point for crewed missions to Mars in the 2030s.

What Happens Next

Over the next 10 days, the Orion spacecraft will perform several critical maneuvers. On April 6, it will perform a close flyby of the lunar surface, coming within 80 miles (130 km) of the Moon, before using the Moon’s gravity to slingshot itself back toward Earth. Splashdown is scheduled for April 11.

For now, the world watches as four humans begin the first chapter of humanity’s permanent return to deep space.