Artemis II: A Human Flyby of the Moon

Artemis II is a NASA mission with four astronauts. They flew around the far side of the Moon on April 6, 2026. The crew includes Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

During the flight they lost radio contact for about 40 minutes. When communication came back, Christina Koch said, "We will always choose Earth." The spacecraft set a new distance record, moving farther from Earth than the Apollo 13 crew did in 1970. They took photos of the Moon's far side and came within about 4,070 miles of the lunar surface. The ship will return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean a few days later.