NASA is preparing to launch the Artemis II mission, sending humans back to the moon for the first time in over 50 years. The crew includes Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
Victor Glover will become the first Black astronaut to travel beyond low Earth orbit and the first to pilot NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
Christina Koch will be the first woman to journey beyond low Earth orbit. She previously set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.
Jeremy Hansen, representing the Canadian Space Agency, becomes the first non-American to travel to the lunar environment.
At age 50, Wiseman will be the oldest person to reach the lunar environment, surpassing Alan Shepard’s Apollo-era milestone.
The crew will travel nearly 250,000 miles from Earth-farther than any human before-using a free-return trajectory.
Upon reentry, they’ll hit speeds exceeding 25,000 mph-making them the fastest humans in history.
This mission marks the debut of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) with humans aboard and introduces advanced communication systems and the first fully functional toilet designed for deep space travel.