The U.S. crewed lunar mission rocket has launched.

SighingCashier · 2026-04-01T23:02:23+00:00

NASA's (Artemis II) mission successfully launched, beginning a 10-day lunar orbit flight, marking humanity's return to the vicinity of the Moon after half a century. This mission does not land on the Moon; instead, it will conduct observations and life science research to provide data for future lunar missions. Subsequent plans include Artemis III in next year and Artemis IV in 2028.

SighingCashier

2026-04-01 23:02:23

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The U.S. space agency, NASA, is responsible for launching the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II crewed lunar flyby mission, which will mark the start of a 10-day journey around the Moon and signal humanity’s first return to the Moon’s vicinity in more than half a century.

NASA’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, currently the most powerful active rocket in the world, will carry the Orion spacecraft on Wednesday from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to undertake this momentous journey. Four astronauts will begin a 10-day lunar flyby mission. The four astronauts are U.S. astronaut Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

This mission will not land on the Moon, but will carry out multiple observations and life-science research near it, providing important scientific and engineering data for subsequent crewed lunar landing missions. One key experiment will study the effects of deep space on human health.

In 2019, the U.S. announced the Artemis lunar landing program. This time, the Artemis II mission is the first crewed mission under the plan. NASA plans to carry out the Artemis III mission next year, conducting system and operational capability tests in low Earth orbit, and in 2028 it will conduct the Artemis IV lunar landing mission.

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