For the first time in more than half a century, human beings are heading back to the Moon. NASA's Artemis II mission, launching in February 2026, will send a crew of four astronauts on a journey around the Moon and back — the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in December 1972. That is 53 years of silence on the crewed lunar front. And now, silence is about to end.

This is not a landing mission. Artemis II is a flyby — a critical test flight designed to prove that NASA's next-generation spacecraft can safely carry humans to lunar space and return them to Earth. But make no mistake: this mission is the gateway to everything that follows. The lunar landing on Artemis III. The construction of the Gateway space station in lunar orbit. And eventually, the technologies and experience needed to send humans to Mars.

Here is everything you need to know about Artemis II, why it matters, and how it fits into a 2026 space exploration landscape that is more active and more competitive than at any point since the original Space Race.

The Mission: What Artemis II Will Actually Do

Artemis II is a roughly 10-day mission that will take four astronauts farther from Earth than any human has traveled since the Apollo era. The mission profile includes several key phases.

Launch and Earth Orbit

The crew will launch aboard the Orion spacecraft, propelled into space by the Space Launch System (SLS) — the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built. SLS generates 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, roughly 15% more than the Saturn V rockets that carried Apollo astronauts to the Moon. After launch from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B, the crew will spend approximately one day in Earth orbit, conducting systems checks and verifying that the spacecraft is functioning correctly.

Trans-Lunar Injection

Once all systems are confirmed operational, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) will fire to send Orion on its trajectory toward the Moon. This is the trans-lunar injection burn — the moment when the spacecraft leaves Earth orbit and commits to the lunar journey. It is a point of no return in the most literal sense, and one of the highest-risk phases of the mission.

Lunar Flyby

Approximately four days after launch, Orion will reach the Moon. The spacecraft will fly behind the Moon, using lunar gravity to alter its trajectory for the return to Earth. During the lunar flyby, the crew will pass approximately 6,400 miles (10,300 kilometers) above the lunar surface — close enough to see craters and mountains in extraordinary detail through Orion's windows, but far above the surface.

At the farthest point of the mission, the crew will be approximately 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) from Earth. For context, the International Space Station orbits at roughly 250 miles. The Artemis II crew will be nearly a thousand times farther away — beyond any form of rapid rescue or assistance.

Return and Splashdown

After the lunar flyby, Orion will return to Earth over several days. The most critical phase is re-entry, when the spacecraft hits Earth's atmosphere at approximately 25,000 miles per hour — roughly 32 times the speed of sound. The heat shield must withstand temperatures around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). Artemis I, the uncrewed test mission completed in 2022, successfully tested this heat shield, but doing it with four humans aboard raises the stakes considerably.

The mission will conclude with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, where the crew and capsule will be recovered by the USS retrieval ship.

The Crew: Making History in More Ways Than One

The Artemis II crew represents one of the most diverse groups ever assembled for a space mission, reflecting NASA's commitment to ensuring that the return to the Moon represents all of humanity.

Commander Reid Wiseman

A NASA veteran and former Navy test pilot, Wiseman served as commander of the Astronaut Office and flew to the International Space Station in 2014. He brings deep leadership experience and a reputation for calm decision-making under pressure.

Pilot Victor Glover

Victor Glover is a Navy aviator and test pilot who served as pilot of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station in 2020-2021. If Artemis II succeeds, Glover will become the first Black astronaut to travel beyond low Earth orbit — a milestone that carries profound historical significance.

Mission Specialist Christina Koch

Koch is a NASA astronaut who holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, spending 328 consecutive days aboard the International Space Station in 2019-2020. She was also part of the first all-female spacewalk. Koch will be the first woman to fly on a lunar mission.

Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen

A Canadian Space Agency astronaut and former fighter pilot, Hansen will be the first Canadian to travel to deep space. His inclusion on the crew reflects NASA's partnership with the Canadian Space Agency, which contributed the Canadarm3 robotic system to the upcoming Gateway space station.

The diversity of this crew is not symbolic window dressing. It represents a deliberate expansion of who gets to explore beyond Earth — and it sends a message about who the future of space exploration belongs to.

Why Artemis II Matters Beyond the Moon

It is easy to view Artemis II as a single mission. But it is more accurately understood as the critical second step in a multi-decade program that aims to establish a sustainable human presence beyond Earth.

Proving the Hardware

Artemis I in 2022 was uncrewed. It proved that the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft could survive the journey to the Moon and back. But there is an enormous difference between flying an empty capsule and flying one with four humans inside. The life support systems, communication systems, navigation systems, and emergency procedures all need to be validated with a crew aboard. Artemis II is that validation.

Paving the Way for Artemis III

Artemis III is the mission everyone is waiting for — the one that will put astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. But Artemis III depends on Artemis II proving that the crewed Orion system works. Any significant issues discovered during Artemis II could delay the landing mission and reshape the program's timeline.

Artemis III will also involve SpaceX's Starship serving as the Human Landing System (HLS) — the vehicle that will carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface and back. Starship's development has been progressing through a series of test flights, with increasingly successful results, but the vehicle has not yet demonstrated all the capabilities required for a lunar landing mission.

Building Toward the Gateway

Beyond Artemis III, NASA plans to construct the Lunar Gateway — a small space station in orbit around the Moon that will serve as a staging point for lunar surface missions and, eventually, for deeper space exploration. The Gateway will be an international project, with contributions from the European Space Agency, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency.

SpaceX Starship: The Parallel Track

While Artemis II follows the traditional NASA launch approach with SLS and Orion, SpaceX's Starship program is advancing on a parallel track that is both complementary and potentially competitive.

Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, has been conducting a series of increasingly ambitious test flights. The vehicle's fully reusable design promises to dramatically reduce the cost of space access — potentially by orders of magnitude compared to expendable rockets like SLS. SpaceX has been awarded the contract to develop Starship as the Human Landing System for Artemis III, meaning the program's success is directly tied to Artemis's timeline.

The ongoing Starship test program in 2026 will be closely watched for several milestones: successful orbital flights, in-space refueling demonstrations, and progress toward the human-rated version needed for Artemis III. Each Starship test flight carries implications for the broader Artemis program timeline.

The 2026 Space Exploration Landscape

Artemis II is launching into the most active year in space exploration in decades. The global space landscape in 2026 features an remarkable number of ambitious missions.

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Scheduled for launch in autumn 2026, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be one of the most powerful astronomical instruments ever deployed. With a field of view 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's infrared instrument, Roman will survey billions of galaxies, study dark energy and dark matter, and search for exoplanets. It represents the next frontier in our understanding of the universe.

China's Xuntian Space Telescope

China's Xuntian (also known as the Chinese Survey Space Telescope or CSST) is a Hubble-class space telescope designed to survey a significant portion of the sky. With a 2-meter aperture and an enormous field of view, Xuntian will conduct wide-field surveys that complement the deeper but narrower observations of telescopes like Hubble and James Webb. Its deployment marks China's arrival as a serious player in space-based astronomy.

India's Gaganyaan

India's space agency ISRO is conducting an uncrewed test of the Gaganyaan orbital spacecraft in 2026, a crucial step toward India's first crewed space mission. Gaganyaan represents India's determination to become only the fourth nation to independently send humans to space, following the United States, Russia, and China.

Japan's Martian Moons Exploration (MMX)

Japan's JAXA is targeting a mission to Phobos, one of Mars's two moons, with the goal of collecting and returning samples to Earth. The Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission is one of the most technically ambitious sample return missions ever attempted, requiring a journey to the Martian system and back — a round trip of approximately 300 million miles.

The New Space Race: Competition and Collaboration

The original Space Race was a two-player game between the United States and the Soviet Union. The current era is far more complex, with multiple nations and an increasing number of private companies vying for position.

China's space program has been particularly aggressive, with a crewed space station (Tiangong) already operational, lunar sample return missions completed, and plans for crewed lunar landings by the end of the decade. The China National Space Administration has developed capabilities rapidly and independently, raising questions about whether the next humans to walk on the Moon will be American or Chinese.

India, Japan, South Korea, the UAE, and several other nations are also expanding their space capabilities, creating a more multipolar space landscape than has ever existed. Private companies — SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, and dozens of others — add another dimension, bringing commercial speed and investment to what was once an exclusively government domain.

This competitive dynamic has a positive side: it accelerates progress. Many space policy experts argue that the Apollo program succeeded in part because of competition with the Soviet Union, and that similar competitive pressure is driving faster progress today. Whether that competition remains cooperative or turns adversarial will be one of the defining questions of space exploration in the coming decades.

What Comes Next After Artemis II

If Artemis II succeeds — and there is every reason to be optimistic while acknowledging the inherent risks — the path forward includes:

  • Artemis III: The first crewed lunar landing since 1972, using SpaceX's Starship as the landing vehicle. Current targeting places this mission in the 2027-2028 timeframe, though the exact date depends on Starship development progress.
  • Artemis IV and beyond: Subsequent missions will deliver modules to the Lunar Gateway and conduct increasingly complex surface operations, including stays of longer duration.
  • Lunar surface infrastructure: Plans include habitats, power systems, and communication networks that would enable sustained human presence on the Moon.
  • Mars preparation: The Artemis program is explicitly designed as a stepping stone to Mars. Technologies tested on and around the Moon — life support, radiation protection, in-situ resource utilization — will be essential for eventual Mars missions.

Why You Should Care

It is tempting to view space exploration as a distant concern, disconnected from everyday life. But the technologies developed for programs like Artemis have historically driven innovation across industries — from materials science to medical technology, from computing to communication. NASA estimates that every dollar invested in the Apollo program returned $7-14 to the US economy through technology transfer and spinoff innovations.

More fundamentally, Artemis II represents something about human ambition and capability. We are sending people to the Moon again — not because it is easy, but because the challenges of doing so push the boundaries of what is technically possible. And pushing those boundaries is how civilization advances.

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