Science

NASA’s Artemis program advances with Artemis II crewed Moon flyby after years of delays

NASA’s Artemis program, created to return humans to the Moon and establish a sustained lunar presence, reached a major milestone when Artemis II launched on April 2, 2026 from Kennedy Space Center, sending four astronauts in the Orion capsule on a 10-day mission to fly around the Moon and return to Earth. The flight follows Artemis I’s successful uncrewed test in 2022 and comes after years of schedule slips, technical setbacks, and cost overruns that pushed crewed missions into the mid-2020s and beyond; Artemis II is intended to validate spacecraft systems for future landings, with the next planned step toward putting astronauts back on the lunar surface in missions now targeted for 2028.