Artemis II: NASA’s four-astronaut Moon flyby resumes the Apollo era

NASA’s Artemis II will launch a four‑person crew to orbit the Moon in the Orion spacecraft—the first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo—with Reid Wiseman commanding, Victor Glover piloting, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen (CSA) as mission specialists. The mission will test deep‑space operations ahead of potential future Moon landings, and is a stepping stone toward Artemis III, which aims to land astronauts on the Moon in a subsequent flight, planned to occur in the coming years (targeted around 2026).