Back to the moon: Inside NASA's Artemis II mission

February 2, 2026

TL;DR

Artemis II is a crewed lunar fly-by mission, the second in NASA's Artemis program.
The mission will test the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule's systems.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen will participate.
The trajectory will loop around the moon, taking the crew farther than Apollo astronauts traveled.
For approximately 40 minutes, the crew will be out of contact with Earth on the far side of the moon.
The mission focuses on scientific observation and hardware validation, not landing.
Artemis II is a precursor to Artemis III, which aims to land humans on the moon and establish a sustained presence.
The Artemis program aims to use the moon as a gateway for future missions to Mars.

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