In just days, NASA’s Artemis II mission will launch, sending astronauts around the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.
Among the global media at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center is Zachary Aubert, an Edmonton-based space blogger known for his YouTube channel The Launch Pad. With over 727,000 subscribers, Aubert has built a reputation covering major milestones in space exploration.
He described the anticipation among international press and shared exclusive access to the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft during rollout and pre-launch preparations.
Artemis II, scheduled for no earlier than April 1, will carry a crew including Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen-the first non-American to venture beyond low Earth orbit-alongside NASA veterans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch.
Backup crew member Jenni Gibbons, also of the Canadian Space Agency, remains in training and will assist mission communication from Earth.
The mission marks a new chapter in lunar exploration, with plans for future landings under the broader Artemis program. Unlike previous missions, this crew includes diverse representation: a woman, a person of color, and a Canadian astronaut.
Aubert reflected on the magnitude of witnessing history: “We’re going to feel the heat of those SRBs...stretching past Earth’s orbit.”
