NASA's Artemis II crew completes historic lunar flyby

On 1 April 2026 NASA launched the Artemis II mission from Kennedy Space Center using the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The Orion crew capsule carried four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—on a nine‑day flight that marked the first crewed journey beyond low‑Earth orbit since Apollo 17.

After two complete orbits of Earth, Orion departed for a lunar flyby, following a free‑return trajectory that took the crew to a maximum distance of about 406 000 km from Earth, a new record for human spaceflight. The mission tested critical systems such as life‑support, navigation and communications, as well as the performance of the SLS launch vehicle, but did not attempt a lunar landing.

Artemis II therefore demonstrated the key technologies needed for future crewed missions that aim to return humans to the Moon’s surface and eventually travel to Mars.