Overview
- NASA launched Artemis II on Wednesday, April 1 on the Space Launch System from Cape Canaveral for a 10-day trip toward the Moon.
- The crew includes Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
- The mission is a non-landing test that checks Orion’s life-support, spacesuits, and recovery and flight-control procedures for future surface missions.
- Glover is piloting Orion and, if the planned flyby occurs around April 6, would become the first Black man to travel around the Moon.
- No humans have journeyed to lunar distance since Apollo 17 in 1972, making this NASA’s first crewed deep-space flight in more than five decades.