On April 3, 2023, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) announced the four-person crew that would complete the mission of orbiting the Moon. The flight will be NASA’s first human mission to the Moon since Apollo 17, which was 53 years ago. The crew includes Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. Wiseman was a Navy veteran, and he previously served on the ISS (International Space Station). He will be the mission’s Commander. Glover is a US Navy test pilot and served on SpaceX Crew-1. He will be the Pilot for the mission. Koch will be the Mission Specialist, and she currently holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. Hansen will be a Mission Specialist, and he is an astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency.
The goal of the mission, called Artemis II, is to test the systems of the Orion capsule, along with deep space exploration, scientific exploration, and to pave the way for the Artemis III mission, which is intended to land the first woman and person of color on the Moon. The mission will last around ten days, and it was previously scheduled for February 2026, but has been moved to March 6, 2026, due to technical problems.
The crew will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and over the next two days, they will check Orion’s systems and perform a targeting demonstration test before heading toward the Moon. Once they break free from Earth’s orbit, it will take around four days to take them to the far side of the Moon, where they will create a figure eight shape extending over 230,000 miles from Earth. At most, the crew will fly 4,600 miles beyond the Moon. During the four-day trip to return to Earth, they will continue to make sure everything is working properly in the spacecraft. Upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, they will have to undergo the high temperature and high-speed entrance before splashing down into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of San Diego, California.
The Artemis II crew is very excited for the mission. They will get to study the moon and “see things that no human has ever seen,” Commander Reid Wiseman told BBC. “Peace and hope for all humankind, that is what we really want. We are bringing together the world, and when you squeeze it all down, it will create magic.”
Mission Specialist Christina Hammock Koch said, “The Moon was not just a symbol for thinking about our place in the universe, it is a beacon for science and understanding where we came from.” The mission isn’t just to test spacecraft; it is a chance for scientists to learn more about space and the Moon, which will eventually lead to new discoveries.
