Liftoff! NASA Launches Astronauts on Historic Artemis Moon Mission
The United States (US) through federal government agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has officially launched Artemis II, marking the first crewed mission toward the Moon in more than five decades and a major milestone in modern space exploration.
The mission lifted off on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard NASA’s Space Launch System, carrying four astronauts on a 10-day journey that will take them around the Moon and back to Earth. It is the first time humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
Unlike the Apollo missions, Artemis II will not land on the Moon. Instead, the spacecraft will follow a free-return trajectory, looping around the Moon and traveling farther from Earth than any previous human mission, before heading back. The mission is expected to reach a distance of more than 400,000 kilometres from Earth at its furthest point.
