On April 1, 2026, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Artemis II mission, set to orbit and see the far side of the Moon before slingshotting back to Earth and landing in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego. The Artemis II is crewed by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and the goal of the mission is to test out deep-space operations. The ten-day mission is set to conclude on April 11, where by then the Artemis II crew is set to reach the farthest distance from Earth humans have ever reached.
Artemis II launched on schedule and without issue, and, as of April 4, the mission has progressed smoothly. The day following the launch, on April 2, Orion began to capture and send pictures of Earth, one of which calls back to the Apollo mission’s famous photo of the Earth, providing us with the newest images of our home from afar. As the mission progresses, similar images and data will continuously be sent from the Orion to Earth as the crew collects fresh data of our immediate neighborhood, including close up human-gathered data on the Moon’s far side.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the mission is the lunar flyby, where the Orion will get within four thousand miles of the lunar surface and the Artemis II crew will be able to analyze the Moon with their own eyes, which will happen on day six of the mission, on April 6. For the days leading to the event, the crew will prepare the flyby capturing equipment, which will, depending on the Sun’s angle on the Moon’s surface, capture data on the Moon’s far side, alongside personal observation by the astronauts themselves. The flyby will also match the historic moment when the crew will reach the farthest distance any humans have ever travelled from Earth, at about 254,000 miles away, over 4,000 miles farther than the Apollo missions.
After day six, the Orion will slingshot off of the Moon’s gravity and head back to Earth, leaving the lunar sphere of influence, or the area where Moon’s gravity is greater than Earth’s, on the seventh day of the mission. Objectives still aren’t complete, however: the resuming days until splashdown will continue with tests and demonstrations, including suits checks, Orion-Earth interviews and transmissions, and a manual flight demo. All of this is being broadcasted live on NASA’s official website on YouTube: check it out!
The Artemis missions, aboard the Orion spacecraft, are NASA’s initiative to not only return to the Moon, calling back to the historic Apollo missions, but also to stay there. The unmanned Artemis I mission proved technical capabilities, and now the Artemis II mission will prove the Orion’s capabilities in sustained crewed space travel. In the future, the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027, will finalize tests of lunar module docking and compatibility with commercial modules within Earth orbit, and finally, in 2028, Artemis IV will conduct a lunar landing. Beyond 2028, NASA is planning for yearly Artemis missions, which will eventually lead to a moon base/quasi-permanent settlement on the Moon. The Artemis missions, in a larger picture, are intended as opportunities for invaluable research and experience in NASA’s objective to reach Mars.