On Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched its first crewed flight in its Artemis mission program, Artemis II. This is the first crewed flight exceeding low-Earth orbit since the record-breaking Apollo 17 mission back in 1972.
Taking off at the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, the space ship carried astronauts Reid Wiseman (Commander), Victor Glover (Pilot), Christina Koch (Mission Specialist), and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist).
Artemis ll successfully completed its 10-day mission to the moon and back, finishing off with a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.
NASA’s primary goal with this flight was to test the waters of the Orion spacecraft in regards to life support and deep space navigation with astronauts on board. The ten day mission supported human capabilities for any future missions. While NASA is ultimately working on establishing long-term human presence on the moon, Artemis II serves as a stepping stone in future expeditions to Mars.
Aside from the technical achievements, many symbolic triumphs were seen. The spacecraft carried a diverse mix of astronauts, such as astronaut Glover, who piloted Artemis ll, earning the title for the first Black person to orbit the moon.
“People are excited that we’re doing this again. And so for a woman to be on the crew and for a Black astronaut to be on the crew, because that’s what our office looks like, to me it is important,” Glover said. “I think people need to be able to see themselves in the things that they dream about and not just have to try to color it in their mind’s eye.”
Along with Glover, astronaut Koch made history by becoming the first female astronaut to travel around the moon. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013, Koch began her career as an electrical engineer, and later participated in the first all-female spacewalk.
“The thing that changed for me, looking back at Earth, was that I found myself noticing not only the beauty of Earth, but how much blackness there was around it and how it just made it even more special,” Koch said.
Astronaut Koch’s role in the historic Artemis ll mission ignited a global fascination with space exploration among online audiences. Upon returning from the far side of the moon, Koch highlights that space exploration is done to benefit and appreciate our home planet, not to abandon it.
“And with this burn, we don’t leave Earth, we choose it!” Koch said.
As such, the successful orbit and return of the spacecraft brought awareness to previous space missions, such as the infamous Apollo missions that took place from 1961 to 1972.
Besides that, it allowed for deep reflection regarding the missions that were not necessarily successful, such as the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, which was intended to observe Halley’s Comet. The space shuttle carried teacher Christa McAuliffe, who was supposed to conduct live educational lessons to her students from space and become the first teacher to ever be in space.
However, the contributions, both successful and not, of all space travel that served as predecessors to Artemis ll allowed for its travel to be as successful as it was, passing the torch towards significant future space exploration.
“We did this,” Glover said. “Not we as a crew, [but] we as countries and as humans did this.”
