NASA has announced plans to send astronauts on a ten-day mission around the Moon as early as February 2026.
The U.S. space agency had previously committed to a launch no later than the end of April but is now aiming to move the timeline forward.
This will be the first crewed lunar mission in 50 years. The Artemis II mission will send four astronauts on a journey to the Moon and back to test critical systems.
Artemis II is the second mission of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to eventually land astronauts on the Moon and establish a long-term human presence there.
“This is an important moment in the human exploration of space,” said Lakiesha Hawkins, NASA’s acting deputy associate administrator. “We together have a front-row seat to history. Safety remains our top priority.”
Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said the Space Launch System (SLS), the rocket designed to carry astronauts to the Moon, is “pretty much stacked and ready to go.” The crew capsule, Orion, still requires final integration and ground tests.
The first Artemis mission in November 2022 lasted 25 days and involved an uncrewed spacecraft orbiting the Moon before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. While the mission was largely successful, issues with the heatshield were identified and have since been fixed.
Artemis II will carry four astronauts — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. They will not land on the Moon but will become the first crew to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The mission will conclude with re-entry and splashdown off the coast of California.
The success of Artemis II will determine the timeline for Artemis III, which aims to land astronauts on the lunar surface. However, experts caution that NASA’s target of “no earlier than mid-2027” is optimistic, as the mission depends on SpaceX’s Starship, which is still in development and yet to achieve orbital flight.
