NASA is preparing Artemis II, a mission that will send astronauts around the moon for the first time since 1972. The launch is planned for February 6, 2026.
The mission will last 10 days and carry four astronauts: NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Artemis II will travel about 230,000 miles from Earth, circling the far side of the moon. Before heading to the moon, the spacecraft will stop near Earth to check its systems.
Instead of using traditional fuel-heavy methods to return, the spacecraft will follow a fuel-efficient path using the gravity of the Earth and Moon to guide it back, ending with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
NASA named the mission after Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon, as a nod to the Apollo missions that first took humans to lunar orbit.
The mission comes despite NASA’s overall budget being cut to its lowest since 2015. NASA says crew safety remains the top priority as it prepares for launch.
This marks the first crewed deep space mission in over 50 years, signaling a major step in NASA’s long-term plan to return humans to the moon and beyond.
