It's been more than 50 years since astronauts last went to the moon, and yet few NASA missions stir the kind of excitement that the Apollo program once did. But now, NASA has new moon plans. The upcoming Artemis II mission, scheduled for February, will be the closest humanity has come to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. And it'll be setting the stage for another moon landing.
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On Tuesday, NASA announced details of the upcoming mission, which will send four astronauts around the moon and back again.
Artemis II: The Plan
The Artemis II launch window opens Feb. 5, 2026, and lasts up to eight days. That means the mission will launch on Feb. 5 at the earliest and Feb. 13 at the latest.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will crew Artemis II. Wiseman, Glover and Koch are all Americans, and Hansen will be the first Canadian ever to travel to the moon.
NASA will use the same systems it did during the uncrewed Artemis I flight test in 2022. The launch will use NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which was developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and the United Launch Alliance.
After launch, the Orion spacecraft will perform a series of maneuvers to raise its orbit around Earth. NASA says that Orion will be 46,000 miles away from Earth during this time. For reference, the International Space Station orbits at around 250 miles above our planet.
The Artemis II will be a 10-day mission that launches, circles the moon, and then comes back. NASA
Orion will orbit Earth twice before separating from the upper stage of the Space Launch System rocket. From there, manual controls will be engaged and the crew will be on its way to the moon. After a few days, the crew will overshoot the moon by about 4,700 miles, giving the crew a rare glimpse of the Earth and the moon at the same time, with the moon in the foreground.
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