Artemis II Has Launched. Humans Are Heading to the Moon for the First Time Since 1972.

NASA launched Artemis II from Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, sending four astronauts toward the moon for the first time in 53 years. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen are now in orbit. The crew is running Orion through a full day of systems tests before heading deeper into space.

On day one, the crew took manual control of Orion and flew it themselves, a test most missions skip. Future missions need to dock with a lunar lander, and that requires hands-on piloting. The crew also switched communications from NASA's low-orbit relay satellites to the Deep Space Network, something no crewed mission has done in half a century.

Artemis II will not land on the moon. The crew will loop around it, fly past the far side, and travel farther from Earth than any humans in history, then return home. The whole trip takes about 10 days. Think of it as a shakedown cruise before the real thing.

The real thing is Artemis III, planned for 2027. That mission will put the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface. But Artemis II has to go well first.

Getting here took longer than anyone wanted. Hydrogen leaks delayed the mission through late 2024, then again in February and March 2026. Wednesday's launch ended more than a year of setbacks.