Artemis II, the first mission to the moon in over 50 years, launched on April 1st, 2026, for a 10-day trip. The Artemis will be the first mission to take humans back to the vicinity of the moon since 1972, a significant factor in its importance. The second scheduled flight of NASA’s Artemis program and the first astronauts to board the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft. The Artemis mission will send the four astronauts around the moon and back, testing the systems that will eventually lead humans back to the moon. The crew contained Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. 

As these astronauts flew on the Orion spacecraft, they evaluated the rocket through a series of planned tests, procedures, and its performance in deep space. The research they did aboard will be used to learn more about Orion’s life-support, power, propulsion, thermal, and navigation systems. During the mission, the crew participated in several live videos with news outlets, administration officials, and more. As the Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission, the design and build was based on the Artemis I.

As the Artemis looped around the moon and back to the earth, the spacecraft successfully landed off the coast of San Diego, California, on April 10, 2026. Re-entry is known to be one of the riskiest parts of the flight, but the spacecraft’s heat shield had known design flaws, but in the end, the astronauts emerged safe. For extraction, the crew remained inside the capsule for initial safety procedures. Before being removed by U.S. Navy divers from the USS John P. Murtha, securing the capsule and helping the crew into inflatable rafts later transferred to helicopters.