Return to the Moon with Artemis, Part II

FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 34, Number 1.

After the successful flight of Artemis I back in 2022, NASA was set to send astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since 1972. However, it’s taken a little longer than expected. Now they are ready and on the verge of sending the first crewed Artemis mission into space. Four astronauts will ride Artemis II to the Moon and back with a launch scheduled for early April 2026.

NASA first reached the Moon with Apollo 8 in December 1968. Back then, three astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, journeyed to the Moon and completed ten orbits before returning to Earth. The last human spaceflight to the Moon was Apollo 17 in December 1972. On this mission, Gene Cernan and geologist Harrison Schmitt landed and completed three lengthy excursions across the Moon’s surface before leaving the Moon behind on December 14, 1972.

Updated February 28, 2026: NASA hopes to finally return to the Moon’s surface with the next phases of the Artemis program. Artemis III, scheduled for 2027, will be a test flight in Earth orbit. Artemis IV, scheduled for 2028, will take four astronauts into orbit around the Moon and two of these astronauts down for a landing.

In many ways, Artemis II is a repeat of Artemis I. The mission will circle the Moon without landing and then return to the Earth. Artemis I completed a 25-day mission back in November-December 2022. As with the first Artemis flight, this follow up will see NASA’s Block I SLS rocket propel an Orion capsule into space. After two initial orbits around the Earth, the plan is to follow a “free return trajectory.” The spacecraft will take four days to reach the Moon. Once there, the Orion capsule will fly by the Moon and then let gravity loop it around for an additional four-day return journey back to Earth. The crew will be carried some 4,500 miles beyond the Moon before swinging back around toward home. Unlike the longer Artemis I flight, this first crewed mission will last just ten days.

Artemis II Mission. Credit: NASA

According to NASA, the objectives of the Artemis II mission are to fully evaluate the various Artemis systems, and particularly the life support systems with a crew on board. They will also focus on other systems including navigation and communication.

Riding in the Orion spacecraft will be NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen.

Reid Wiseman, the mission commander, is a veteran Navy pilot from Baltimore. He has degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins University. He’s been a NASA astronaut since 2009 and flew on the ISS Expedition 41 mission in 2014.
Victor Glover, the pilot, is a Naval Aviator from California. He flew to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew-1/Expedition 64 mission in 2020-21. He’s been an astronaut since 2013 and holds several advance degrees.
Christina Koch, a mission specialist, has been an astronaut since 2013. Although, a native of Michigan, she lived and attended school in North Carolina obtaining degrees from NC State. She worked on the International Space Station during Expeditions 59, 60, and 61 in 2019 spending 328 days in space.
Jermey Hansen is from Ontario and became an astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency in 2009. He holds degrees from the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.

Artemis II Crew. Image Credit: NASA.

The launch of Artemis II is schedule for no earlier than February 6. There appears to be three windows to launch Artemis II: ~~February 6-11~~, ~~March 6-11,~~ and April 1-6. We will update this article with further information as the mission unfolds.

February 22, 2026: More issues with the fueling tests have pushed the planned launch off to April.
February 3, 2026: Issues encountered during a fuel test have pushed the planned launch off to March at the earliest.
January 30, 2026: Cold weather has pushed the initial launch window off to February 8.