Why Artemis II Matters

One of the United States’ preeminent accomplishments was becoming the first, and thus far the only, country to land people on the Moon. But despite ambitious plans to scale up lunar missions and, potentially, send humans to Mars, NASA’s manned space exploration has been distinctly lacking since the end of the Apollo program. In fact, it’s been over a half-century since a human being has so much as left low Earth orbit.

That is, until Artemis II.

The Artemis program is NASA’s new plan to bring back human space exploration. First set in motion in 2017, it seeks to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028, with additional landings and, eventually, a permanent moon base in subsequent years.

Before that can happen, however, the program seeks to have several test runs to make sure that key mission components, including the new Orion spacecraft, work properly. The first such mission, the aptly named Artemis I, was an unmanned flyby of the Moon that was successfully executed in 2022. Artemis II seeks to do the same thing, but with real astronauts aboard.

The mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 1. The spacecraft has a crew of four astronauts: Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, and Reid Wiseman, the commander.

It flew by the Moon on April 6, with a closest approach of about 4,067 miles. As the craft swung around the Moon, it used lunar gravity to send it back toward Earth, so that additional fuel will only be needed for minor trajectory adjustments. While it was on the far side of the Moon, the spacecraft lost communications for about 40 minutes.

According to NASA, its plan is for Artemis III to test potential lunar landers in low-Earth orbit in 2027. If all goes to plan, Artemis IV would send astronauts to the lunar surface in the beginning of 2028. That date is significant in no small part because of the rise of another power in the realm of space exploration: China. The Chinese government plans to land their own men on the Moon by 2030. Artemis II, in short, is a critical proof-of-concept mission that will help ensure American leadership in space exploration.

President Donald Trump spoke to the crew on Tuesday, April 7, telling them in part, “Today, you’ve made history and made all of America really proud” and likened them to “modern day pioneers.” Wiseman told the president about their experience, saying that the astronauts “saw sights … that no human has ever seen before — not even in Apollo.” A press release from the White House stated that the spacecraft’s course took it 253,000 miles from the Earth’s surface, the farthest humans have ever traveled from our home planet.

The crew was also invited by the president to visit him in the Oval Office upon their return to Earth. According to NASA, the spacecraft is planned to splash down off the coast of San Diego the evening of Friday, April 10.