Artemis II: Crowds Gather for Historic NASA Moon Mission
Artemis II: Crowds Gather for Historic NASA Moon Mission
Live from Florida's Space Coast, Artemis II aims to carry humans beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo 17, marking milestones for women, people of color, and international crew.
A little more than an hour before sunset on Florida’s Space Coast, up to 400,000 people packed on beaches and causeways will look to the heavens on Wednesday to witness a fiery spectacle not seen in almost 54 years: a fully crewed NASA rocket heading back to the moon. The launch of Artemis II, scheduled for 6.24pm ET if weather and any late technical gremlins grant their consent, marks the first time since the Apollo 17 mission of December 1972 that humans will have left lower Earth orbit.
The crew, a four-person team of three Americans and one Canadian, will fly aboard the Orion spacecraft on a 10-day test flight that will not land on the Moon but will push the mission's milestones to the limit. Commander Reid Wiseman, a veteran NASA astronaut, will lead the crew as they enter quarantine ahead of liftoff. Christina Koch and Victor Glover will push into cislunar space, while Canada's Jeremy Hansen joins as the first non-American on such a mission.
Collectively, Artemis II’s Orion capsule could fly farther from Earth than any human before them. If all goes to plan, they could reach more than 4,600 miles beyond the far side of the Moon on flight day six, and travel just short of 253,000 miles from home.
NASA has long celebrated the diversity of its Artemis crews, but the agency dropped explicit DEI language from its online materials last year in line with evolving federal guidelines. The mission also carries symbolic significance for representation, even as the team emphasizes science, safety, and the ship’s systems.
As launch teams monitor weather windows and scrub the final checks, the countdown remains hopeful. A successful liftoff would not land on the Moon this time, but it would set the next chapters in humanity's return to cislunar space and beyond.
