More than half a century since humans last visited our lunar neighbour – or indeed travelled beyond low Earth orbit – NASA has announced plans to send four astronauts around the Moon.
The Artemis II mission was originally planned for April 2026, but the agency now says it could launch as early as 5 February.
The crew – Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen – will embark on a 10-day voyage to 'explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars'.
The flight is part of the Artemis programme, which aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon.
Although the mission won’t land on the lunar surface, it will take the astronauts farther into space than any human has gone before.
"They’re going at least 5,000 nautical miles (9,200km) past the Moon," says Artemis II flight director Jeff Radigan, "which is much higher than previous missions have gone."
This is to test the latest capabilities of the Orion spacecraft, after it had issues at the launchpad and suffered heatshield damage on the first Artemis mission in November 2022.
As for when NASA will actually land on the Moon, the Artemis III mission that’s scheduled to do that is planned for 2027.
But with SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System falling behind schedule – and complex orbital refuelling manoeuvres still to be demonstrated – that deadline may yet slip.
With China outlining plans for a crewed Moon landing in 2030, the emergence of a new lunar Space Race is becoming ever more real.
Artemis II's journey – key points
The Artemis II mission will launch a crew of four astronauts from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Artemis II astronauts are NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Orion will perform multiple manoeuvers to fine-tune its orbit around Earth and eventually place the crew on a 'lunar free return trajectory', in which Earth’s gravity will pull the Orion capsule back home after flying round the Moon.
Orion and the upper stage will orbit Earth twice for systems checkout.
The first orbit will last a little over 90 minutes and the second, larger orbit will take approximately 23.5 hours.
Following separation from the upper stage, the crew will use it as a target for a proximity operations demonstration, transitioning Orion to manual mode to pilot and assess its handling qualities.
After the demonstration, the crew will remove their Orion Crew Survival System suit and spend the remainder of the mission in plain clothes, donning their suits again to prepare for reentry.
The crew will assess the performance of the life support systems, which generate breathable air and remove carbon dioxide, during high-metabolic exercise periods and low-metabolic sleep periods.
While still close to Earth, Orion will briefly fly beyond the range of GPS satellites and the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites to allow an early checkout of the agency’s Deep Space Network communication and navigation capabilities.
The service module will provide the last push, called the translunar injection burn, to put Orion on an outbound path toward the Moon, lasting about four days.
The mission is expected to last about 10 days, during which the crew will travel approximately 4,700 miles beyond the far side of the Moon before returning to Earth.
