NASA’s Artemis II lifts off for 10-day lunar mission

Four astronauts blasted off from Florida on Wednesday aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission, a high-stakes 10-day trip around the moon that marks the United States’ boldest step yet toward returning humans to the lunar surface this decade before China’s first crewed landing.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, topped with its Orion crew capsule, roared to life just before sunset at 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT) at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center to lift its first crew of three U.S. astronauts and a Canadian astronaut off Earth. Its thunderous ascent left behind a towering column of thick white vapor.



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The Artemis II crew of Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are poised for a nearly 10-day expedition around the moon and back, taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone.

“This is Jeremy, we are going for all humanity,” Hansen, strapped inside Orion, told launch control minutes before liftoff.

“Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy, on this historic mission you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said, before adding, “Good luck, godspeed, Artemis II. Let’s go.”

After nearly three years of training, the crew is the first to fly in NASA’s Artemis programme, a multibillion-dollar series of missions created in 2017 to build a long-term U.S. presence on the moon over the next decade and beyond.

Who are the astronauts on board?

The four-member crew reflects diversity and international collaboration, marking a milestone moment for human spaceflight. Koch, who spent 328 days aboard the International Space Station between 2019 and 2020, holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman and took part in the first all-female spacewalk.


Glover, a U.S. Navy test pilot, became the first Black astronaut to live and work aboard the space station during his 2020–21 mission. Hansen, a former fighter pilot with the Canadian Space Agency, is the lone spaceflight rookie, while Wiseman, a retired Navy captain and former chief of NASA’s astronaut corps, leads the mission.

Together, they represent the first woman, first person of colour, and first non-American astronaut to fly on a lunar mission — a defining moment in the evolution of space exploration.

How will Artemis II fly around the Moon?

The crew’s gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, built by Lockheed Martin, will separate from the SLS upper stage about three-and-a-half hours into flight in Earth’s orbit. The astronauts will then take manual control of the spacecraft to test its steering and maneuverability — a key objective for future docking and landing missions.





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They will spend roughly the first 25 hours circling Earth in a high, elliptical orbit, using the detached upper stage as a target for close-approach maneuvers. Relying on visual judgment rather than automated systems, they will guide Orion to within about 10 meters of the stage.

If all goes as planned, Orion’s main engine will then propel the crew toward the moon on a free-return trajectory — a path that uses the gravitational pull of the Earth and moon to bring the spacecraft back home without requiring extensive fuel.

At its farthest point, the mission will take the astronauts about 252,000 miles (406,000 km) from Earth — surpassing the record set by Apollo 13 mission in 1970. On the sixth day of the mission, Orion will travel roughly 5,000 miles beyond the far side of the moon, offering the crew a rare view of regions never seen directly by humans.

Unlike future Artemis missions, there will be no lunar orbit or moon landing — just a high-speed flyby lasting several hours before the spacecraft heads back to Earth.

Why is this mission significant?

The launch marks a major milestone more than a decade in the making for NASA’s SLS rocket, developed by Boeing and Northrop Grumman. The 30-storey system is designed to safely carry humans into deep space, even as NASA increasingly works with newer, lower-cost launch providers.




Artemis II builds on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, which sent Orion on a similar journey around the moon. This time, however, the presence of astronauts adds a new layer of complexity and risk, making it a crucial test before future landing missions.

The mission is a key early step in NASA’s broader Artemis programme, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface — for the first time since the Apollo era ended in 1972 and establish a sustained presence there. A crewed lunar landing is currently targeted for later this decade.

At the same time, NASA faces increasing global competition. China is advancing its own lunar ambitions, with plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030, intensifying the race for leadership in deep space exploration.





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Private companies are also playing a growing role. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing lunar landers that NASA intends to use for future missions, highlighting a shift toward public-private partnerships in spaceflight.

The Artemis II mission will conclude with a high-speed re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, with Orion’s heat shield undergoing a critical test after issues observed during the 2022 mission. The capsule is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery teams will retrieve the crew.

More than five decades after humanity last ventured to the moon, Artemis II signals a return to deep space not just to visit, but to stay.


With inputs from Reuters