NASA pushes Artemis forward with Moon flyby and Starlink comms upgrade

NASA successfully completed the Artemis II mission, sending four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—on a ten‑day crewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket. The crew traveled roughly 252,756 miles, passed close to the Moon, captured thousands of images and audio, and named a lunar crater after Wiseman’s late wife. After a brief six‑minute communications blackout during re‑entry, the capsule splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, prompting celebrations at Johnson Space Center.

For the next phase, NASA selected SpaceX to equip Orion for Artemis III with two Starlink mini laser communication terminals. The laser‑crosslink system will downlink 4K video and data from Orion to mission control, giving a front‑row view of upcoming rendezvous and docking tests with commercial lunar landing systems slated for 2028. The plan builds on the optical communications demonstration performed during Artemis II and is part of NASA’s broader partnership with the SCaN Division and SpaceX.