Artemis II, NASA’s mission to send humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972, successfully launched early this evening.
The 10-day test flight, which will not land on the moon, is a mission packed with milestones. The mission includes the first woman and first person of colour to fly into cislunar space, the area between Earth’s orbit and the moon. Artemis II’s Orion space capsule could fly them farther from Earth than any human being before them. Their 10-day lunar flyby is the first crewed mission to the moon in more than half a century. No other humans have traveled beyond lower Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
Artemis II is a test flight designed to evaluate the Orion crew capsule and essential life support and medical systems ahead of future Artemis missions, including the next moon landing scheduled for Artemis IV in 2028. Four astronauts — three from NASA and one from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) — make up the Artemis II crew:
- NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander
- NASA astronaut Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot
- NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist
- Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist
After launching into space atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the crew will journey around the Moon and back in their Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, on an approximately 10-day mission. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight test of SLS and Orion, testing the technologies we’ll need for long-term lunar exploration and human missions to Mars.