Artemis II

Artemis II (April 1–11, 2026) was a crewed flyby of the Moon and first crewed flight of the NASA-led Artemis program. It was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the only crewed flight beyond LEO not part of the Apollo program. It was the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) and of the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity by the four-person crew. The mission was a test flight supporting the Artemis IV mission to return humans to the lunar surface. Originally designated Exploration Mission-2 (EM-2) and intended to support the canceled Asteroid Redirect Mission, its objectives were revised after the establishment of the Artemis program in 2017. The mission's primary goal was to validate the Orion spacecraft's systems, crew operations, and mission procedures ahead of sustained lunar exploration in future Artemis missions. Artemis II's mission objectives were similar to those of Apollo 8 in 1968, the first crewed lunar flight of the Apollo program, while its free-return trajectory resembled that flown by Apollo 13 in 1970. Among the four crew members, Victor Glover became the only person of color, Christina Koch the only woman, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen the only person not from the United States, and Reid Wiseman the oldest person to travel beyond low Earth orbit and around the Moon. During their lunar flyby, the crew broke Apollo 13's record of 248,655 miles (400,171 km) for the greatest human distance from Earth, reaching a maximum distance of 252,756 miles (406,771 km). After its launch, Artemis II gained widespread global attention for its achievements and inclusive crew, giving rise to the term "Moon joy".