Four astronauts have arrived in Florida to begin the final preparations for NASA's Artemis II mission, the first crewed journey toward the Moon in over 50 years. The crew (NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen) flew from Houston, Texas, to Kennedy Space Center, where they could launch as early as April 1 aboard NASA's Space Launch System rocket.
The roughly 10-day mission will carry the astronauts on a high-speed loop around the Moon and back, testing the Orion spacecraft's life-support, navigation, communications, and heat shield systems. While it will not attempt a lunar landing, Artemis II will send humans farther from Earth than ever before.
The crew brings significant experience: Wiseman commanded a 165-day mission aboard the ISS, Glover served as pilot for Crew-1, and Koch spent 328 days in space, setting the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman. Hansen, making his first spaceflight, will become the first non-American astronaut to travel beyond low Earth orbit. Glover will be the first Black astronaut and Koch the first woman to reach the Moon's vicinity.
NASA plans Artemis II as a critical test mission in its multi-billion-dollar Artemis program, which aims for a sustained human presence on the Moon and future crewed missions to Mars.