About Artemis II

Artemis II was a flyby mission around the moon that lasted 10 days. It was successfully completed in April 2026 which means that this is the first human mission to travel beyond our orbit since 1972. The people on the mission were Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman. These astronauts took the brave step of risking their lives to help expand space exploration and to test new systems that could have backfired in the name of science. They went on the Orion spaceship and traveled around the moon and they did this to test different systems that would possibly allow a long-term human presence by the moon. The mission was started on April 1st, 2026 in the Kennedy Space Center and they arrived back on April 10, 2026. 

It is historically relevant because it was the first space mission to do this in over 50 years. This was a very important step in the Artemis missions and helped prepare for future missions to the moon and Mars. It also helped validate the spacecraft's systems use because it was very successful and did not have many complications. This was also a major moment for women in the space industry because it highlighted the first women and people of color to travel the moon. This is extremely important because in previous space missions, it was typically only the United States and the Soviet Union that had a lot of space exploration. The missions also mainly included mostly men, so having people not from those two parts of the world and a woman who had the most experience on board which helped represent this new era of space travel. This particular group was able to fly further than anyone has ever done before in history. 

Overall, this mission helped set the stage for future jobs to come in outer space and will help astronauts travel safer into space. It was extremely successful and marked a new point in space exploration which will be remembered for years to come.

Image Courtesy of NASA HQ PHOTO on Flickr.