NASA launched its Artemis II mission on April 1 at 6:35 pm ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending a four-person crew on a 10-day, 685,000-mile (about 1.1 million km) journey around the moon. About two hours after liftoff, the crew entered high Earth orbit, where they will spend roughly a day testing the Orion capsule’s systems before continuing toward the moon.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman described the mission as America’s “grand return to the moon,” adding that the crew "are safe. They're secure, and they're in great spirits."
Since it was formally established in 2017, NASA’s Artemis program has been a bold initiative to return humanity to the moon and eventually prepare for Mars. Although the spacecraft won’t make a landing on the lunar surface, it will still come closer to the moon than any other crewed shuttle since Apollo 17 in 1972. In fact, this will be the furthest from the Earth that any human will have ventured for the past 53 years.
What will this mission entail? And are there other crewed missions planned after that? Click on to find out.