A moment and photo that defies description.

Artemis II

In Greek Mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon.  She personifies our path to the Moon as the name of NASA's efforts to return astronauts and a new wave of science payloads and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface.  When they land, American astronauts will step foot where no human has has ever been before: the Moon's South Pole. 

"Fly Me to the Moon"

NASA has now successfully launched a mission from the Kennedy Space Center from Launch Complex 39B marking the first crewed flight to the moon in over 50 years. 

 Four brave astronauts by the names of Reid Wiseman (Commander), Victor Glover (Pilot), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist) and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist) will fly around the moon on a 10-day journey aboard the Orion spacecraft to test systems for future lunar landings.  While the crew will not land on the moon, they will travel around the far side of the moon and go deeper into space than anyone since 1972.  

Reid Wiseman is a NASA astronaut since 2009.  This is is second spaceflight, following a 2014 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Victor Glover is the first Black man to travel around the moon.

Christina Koch holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman (328 days) and will be the first woman to make a lunar journey. 

Jeremy Hansen is the first Canadian to be chosen for a crewed moon mission.

Gregory Reid Wiseman

Artemis II Commander

Gregory Reid Wiseman born November 11, 1975 is an American astronaut and naval aviator with the rank of Captain. He is presently the Commander of the 2026 Artemis II lunar fly-by mission and the first crewed flight around the Moon since Apollo 17.  He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer and systems engineering and from John Hopkins University with a Masters degree. Wiseman is a native of Baltimore, Maryland.

This trans-lunar injection burn will send the astronauts on an outbound trip about four days, taking them around the far side of the Moon, where they will ultimately create a figure eight extending more than 230,000 miles from Earth.  At their maximum distance, the crew will fly 4,600 miles beyond the Moon.  Instead of requiring propulsion on the return trip, this fuel-efficient trajectory harnesses the Earth-Moon gravity field, ensuring that after its trip around the far side of the Moon, Orion will be pulled back naturally by Earth's gravity for the free return portion of the mission. This is called a "free-return trajectory".

The crew will endure the high-speed, high-temperature re-entry through Earth's atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California where they will be met by a recovery team of NASA and the Department of Defense personnel who will bring them back to shore. 

 

In late 2022, the uncrewed Artemis I mission successfully orbited the Moon.  The Orion spacecraft spent six days in a "distant retrograde orbit" which consisted of a large loop 40,000 miles above the lunar surface before returning to Earth, covering over 1 million miles in total. 

 Prior to the launch, the astronauts gave farewell gestures as they walked out of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to cheering crowds where they shaped their hands into hearts and waved goodbye to their families before departing for Launch Complex 39B.  

The mission is the first crewed lunar flight in 53 years.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

Rest assured .. Neil Armstrong is aboard Artmeis II.