After years of development, delays, and anticipation, NASA is finally ready to send humans around the Moon again. Artemis 2 — the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program — is preparing to launch, marking humanity’s return to lunar space for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972. This is not a landing, but a critical lunar flyby that will prove out the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with humans aboard before the eventual Artemis 3 Moon landing.
The Mission
Artemis 2 will carry four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, launched atop the Space Launch System — the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built. The mission profile is a free-return trajectory around the Moon, swinging the crew out to a distance of roughly 8,900 kilometers beyond the lunar surface before returning to Earth. The total mission duration is approximately 10 days.
The Crew
Artemis 2 features a four-person international crew — three NASA astronauts and one Canadian Space Agency astronaut, marking the first time a Canadian has flown to lunar distance:
- Reid Wiseman (Commander) — NASA
- Victor Glover (Pilot) — NASA, first Black astronaut on a lunar mission
- Christina Koch (Mission Specialist) — NASA, first woman on a lunar mission
- Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist) — Canadian Space Agency
The Hardware
The mission uses NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle built by Lockheed Martin, paired with the European Space Agency’s European Service Module. The entire stack sits atop the SLS Block 1 rocket, which produces 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff — more than the Saturn V that carried Apollo astronauts to the Moon.
What Comes After Artemis 2
A successful Artemis 2 paves the way for Artemis 3, which will see astronauts land on the lunar South Pole — a region believed to contain water ice that could support future long-duration missions and eventual lunar bases. NASA has contracted both SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander as competing Human Landing Systems for future missions.
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