Artemis II: NASA's first crewed mission to the moon since 1972

Brandon Specktor

Fri, March 27, 2026 at 3:48 PM UTC

1 min read

Artemis II is the first crewed spaceflight in NASA's Artemis Program, aiming to send humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972.
The mission's four-astronaut crew will take a 10-day flight around the moon and back to Earth, testing key systems and studying the impact of spaceflight on human biology.
NASA plans to ramp up Artemis missions to an annual tempo, with Artemis III, IV, and V missions scheduled for 2027 and 2028.

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A rocket is stands in silhouette in front of a sunset. — NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at sunrise at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 24, 2026. | Credit: Gregg Newton/AFP via Getty Images

Artemis II is the first crewed spaceflight in NASA’s Artemis Program — a long-term campaign that aims to send humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972.

Launched into orbit by the 322-foot-tall (98 meters) Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule stack, the mission's four-astronaut crew will take a 10-day flight around the moon and back to Earth, testing key systems and studying the impact of spaceflight on human biology. The record-setting flight will send humans farther into space than ever before.

Following a major overhaul of the Artemis program in late February, NASA now aims to ramp its Artemis missions up to an annual tempo, with Artemis III — an Earth-orbit test of a lunar lander docking — falling in 2027. If successful, NASA will follow up with the Artemis IV and V missions, two crewed lunar landing attempts, in 2028. Stay tuned for updates to this developing spaceflight story.

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