Nasa launches Artemis II, 1st crewed lunar mission in half a century

Mangalore Today News Network

Washington, Apr 2, 2026: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) on Wednesday launched four astronauts on the world’s first crewed lunar mission from Florida.

The Artemis II mission is a high-stakes voyage around the Moon and marks the United States’ boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface later this decade, amid a growing space race with China.

Artemis II is the first mission to carry a crew aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft. The four astronauts will undertake a 10-day journey, making it the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman described the launch as a precursor to future missions, including the construction of a lunar base to support a sustained human presence on the Moon.

The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

If successful, the mission will see the crew travel around the Moon and return to Earth, venturing deeper into space than any humans before while rigorously testing the spacecraft.

NASA is targeting 2028 for Artemis IV, which aims to land astronauts near the Moon’s South Pole—potentially ahead of China’s planned crewed mission to the same region as early as 2030.

After nearly three years of training, this crew is the first to fly under the Artemis program, a multibillion-dollar initiative launched in 2017 to establish a long-term US presence on the Moon and pave the way for future missions to Mars.

Moments before liftoff, Hansen, strapped inside Orion, told mission control in Houston, “This is Jeremy, we are going for all humanity.”

Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson hailed the mission as historic, saying the crew carries “the heart of the Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our global partners, and the hopes of a new generation.”

The launch also marks a major milestone for the SLS rocket, validating years of work by contractors Boeing and Northrop Grumman. In recent years, NASA has increasingly relied on cost-effective launch systems from companies like SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, for missions to low-Earth orbit.

Artemis II will carry its four-member crew approximately 252,000 miles (406,000 km) into space—the farthest distance ever traveled by humans. The previous record of about 248,000 miles was set by the crew of Apollo 13 in 1970.

Crew Details

Reid Wiseman (Commander): Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009, Wiseman earlier led the NEEMO21 mission in 2016.
Victor Glover (Pilot): Chosen as an astronaut in 2013, Glover served as the pilot for the SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station in 2020.
Christina Koch (Mission Specialist): Selected in 2013, Koch worked as a flight engineer on Expeditions 59, 60, and 61 aboard the International Space Station. She also holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, at 328 days.
Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist): A former fighter pilot, Hansen became the first Canadian to be entrusted with leading a NASA astronaut class.