On Apr. 1, 2026, during the evening of the full moon, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Artemis II, for a space mission to the moon. This marks the first time that astronauts have travelled there since the Apollo 17 launch in 1972.
The Apollo 17 mission occurred from Dec. 7-19, 1972, and the highlight of the trip was the astronauts landing on the moon’s surface. A little over 53 years later, the Artemis II is NASA’s return trip to the moon. The mission spanned over 10 days, and its four astronauts did not land, but orbited around the moon until their return.
This 10-day orbit ended on Apr. 10,. The spacecraft was then returned back to Earth, and it was estimated to move at 25,000 miles per hour (approximately 40,000 kilometres).
NASA’s first lunar mission occurred in the summer of 1969 with Apollo 11, which had Neil Armstrong, who was the commander, amongst its crew. These lunar missions, which included a crew, ceased in 1972, after Apollo 17, until now, particularly due to budget-related reasons as travelling to the moon is a costly endeavour.
Artemis II had a crew of four: Commander G. Reid Wiseman, Astronaut-Pilot Victor J. Glover, Astronaut Christina H. Koch, and Canadian Astronaut, Jeremy Hansen.
Three out of the four astronauts have already travelled to space, but this is Hansen’s inaugural mission.
“Hansen, making his first space flight, will become the first Canadian to leave Earth orbit.”
As Hansen made history by being the first Canadian to go to space, ABC News reported that Koch also made her mark by being the first woman in a crew that travelled to the moon.
Alongside Koch and Hansen, Charlie Blackwell-Thompson also played a significant role on this mission as she was the first woman to act as a launch director for NASA.
The Artemis II launch had crowds of people witnessing it live from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, and in the surrounding areas.
The Space Center’s main purpose is to act as the location from where astronauts could be sent to the moon, according to BBC News.
Artemis II continued off of the success of 2022’s Artemis I which had no crew members. NASA outlined the initiative of the Artemis II launch.
“[It] will demonstrate a broad range of capabilities needed on deep space missions. The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew aboard the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft.”
USA Today detailed the significance of this trip.
“[The crew will] be between 4,600 and 6,000 miles above the surface, and about 250,000 miles from Earth, farther than any human has ever gone in space.”
This mission is conducted with aims to pave a path for future lunar surface missions.
This launch has been considered the beginning of a new space race. According to CBS News, NASA is currently in a space race with China.
“China, which plans to put their own “taikonauts” on the lunar surface by 2030. NASA hopes to win that race by launching one and possibly two Artemis moon landing missions in 2028.”
One of the intentions of this mission is for the team to observe the far hemisphere of the moon.
“The crew will become the first humans to see large regions of the moon’s normally out-of-view far side.”
On Apr. 6, the Artemis II broke the distance record of 400,171 kilometres, previously set by Apollo 13, as it travelled behind the moon.
CTV News broke down the events of Apr. 10, when the Artemis II crew returned back to Earth.
“The crew members aboard lunar mission Artemis II have landed in the Pacific Ocean to await pickup from U.S. officials, capping off their 10-day voyage around the moon. It’s a soggy end to their descent through the Earth’s atmosphere, hurtling towards home at roughly 40,000 km/h.”
The Pacific Ocean was the splashdown point for the four astronauts and all have been reported as safe and sound.
This historic mission is considered a success. Dr. Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, has announced plans to return to the moon.
“This mission, as we’ve been talking about, is just the beginning. Our first mission to the moon of many more to come.”
