KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — History is set to be made today as NASA prepares to launch Artemis II, the first crewed mission to travel toward the Moon in more than half a century.
Liftoff is scheduled for Wednesday evening, with a launch window opening around 6:24 p.m. Eastern. If successful, the mission will mark the first time humans leave low-Earth orbit since the Apollo era in 1972.
Aboard the spacecraft are four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — who will embark on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth. The mission will carry them roughly 250,000 miles into space, farther than any humans have traveled before.
The crew will fly inside NASA’s Orion capsule, launched atop the massive Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built by the agency. Unlike the Apollo missions, Artemis II will not land on the Moon but will instead perform a flyby, testing critical systems needed for future lunar landings.
NASA officials say the mission is a key step in the broader Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface later this decade and eventually establish a long-term presence near the Moon’s south pole.
The mission also carries historic significance for diversity in spaceflight. Koch is set to become the first woman to travel to the Moon, while Glover will be the first Black astronaut to do so. Hansen will become the first non-American astronaut to venture into deep space.
Crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands have gathered along Florida’s Space Coast to witness the launch, underscoring the global excitement surrounding humanity’s return to deep space exploration.
If all goes as planned, Artemis II will pave the way for future missions, including a planned lunar landing later this decade — a milestone that would mark humanity’s first return to the Moon in more than 50 years.
For now, all eyes are on the launch pad as NASA takes its next giant leap toward the Moon — and beyond.
