The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is expected to launch the first crewed mission to the moon in over 53 years with its Artemis II operation.
Four astronauts, including one Canadian, will board NASA’s Orion spacecraft in the first crewed test flight in the Artemis series for a 10-day test lunar flyby mission, according to an Artemis II release. The flyby will take astronauts 4,000-6,000 miles above the lunar surface, and the crew will take photos and video of the far-side of the moon.
Artemis II serves a critical role in assessing NASA’s systems capabilities for future lunar goals as the United States seeks to reassert dominance in the space race with China, Reuters reported.
The Artemis program is at the core of the United States’ attempts to begin regular flights to the moon, and the program has an approximate cost of $93 billion since 2012, according to Reuters. Only the United States has put human boots on the moon, an accomplishment NASA will try to achieve again in 2028 – something it hasn’t done since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
China has its own ambitions for space, including a base close to the moon’s south pole, according to Phys.org. China is working with Russia on the initiative. (RELATED: NASA Announces $20 Billion Moon Base In Race Against China)
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – MARCH 27: Artemis II crew pilot Victor Glover arrives at the Kennedy Space Center on March 27, 2026 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Glover and the rest of the crew of astronauts arrived to begin preparations for an April 1, 2026 launch for a 10-day mission, which will take them around the Moon and back to Earth. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The Artemis II test flight mission has five goals, according to the press release.
The goals include demonstrating the ability of the spacecraft to sustain a crew for the duration of the mission, demonstrating systems and operations critical for crewed lunar campaigns, assessing flight hardware and data, demonstrating emergency systems capabilities and finishing other objectives to verify subsystems and validate data.
NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist, Christina Koch, said the moon is key to understanding the solar system’s formation and a mechanism for understanding Mars, “where we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life,” according to Reuters.
“Many, many countries have recognized the value that there is in exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars,” Koch informed reporters.
“The question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?” she added.