Editor’s note: This story was originally published on April 6, 2023, and was updated on Jan. 29, 2026, to reflect the latest developments in the Artemis program.
With the success of NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 lunar-orbital mission in late 2022, and with preparations underway for a crewed Moon landing during Artemis 3 in 2027, the next major step in the Artemis program is entering the final stretch: the Artemis 2 lunar flyby, which will send a four-person crew on a 10-day trip around the Moon, is currently targeting a launch as early as February 6, 2026. This follows a series of delays announced in 2024 and 2025.
In April 2023, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency announced the four Artemis 2 astronauts who will spearhead humanity’s first trip to the Moon in more than 50 years. The Artemis 2 crew members are:
Commander Reid Wiseman — A former chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office, Wiseman will be making his second flight to space. He was on Expedition 41 to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014.
Pilot Victor Glover — The pilot of the first operational SpaceX Crew Dragon flight to the ISS in 2020, Glover also served as flight engineer for Expedition 64.
Mission Specialist Christina Koch — Spending 328 days aboard the ISS, Koch currently holds the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman.
Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen — A former fighter pilot and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut who has led astronaut training for the CSA and NASA for several years, Hansen will be embarking on his first spaceflight.
But before Artemis 2 launches, there’s a lot to accomplish.
Artemis 2: Preparing for humanity’s return to the Moon
Artemis 1 worked pretty much to spec, though the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield ablated differently from predictions, with pieces of material falling off the shield, leaving behind gaps. An independent review from a team of engineers studying the phenomenon announced their findings in December 2024. They found that due to the entry technique used during Artemis 1, unexpected temperature fluctuations caused gas to build up beneath the heat shield, building pressure, and eventually cracking the shield. The independent review determined that had a crew been onboard, they would have remained safe and that adjusting the entry technique for Artemis 2 would be sufficient. On Thursday, Jan. 8, 2025, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said he had “full confidence” in the Orion heat shield, according to reporting from Ars Technica.
The first launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) — the world’s most powerful rocket — also damaged the launchpad, requiring modifications to blast shields, instrumentation, and more. And there were a few capsule power switches that operated without command.
Additionally, technical hurdles discovered in 2023, 2024, and 2025 required intervention. Engineers identified and fixed a design flaw in the life support system circuits — including those that control the removal of exhaled carbon dioxide from the cabin. They also addressed deficiencies in the craft’s electrical system that could appear if a launch were aborted mid-ascent, in which the Crew Module’s battery might not be able to power the craft all the way to splashdown. More recently, in early 2026, technicians replaced a misshapen cable in the flight termination system (a required safety system designed to terminate flight if the rocket becomes uncontrollable or erratic) and fixed leaking ground systems responsible for loading in Orion’s breathing air, as well as a malfunctioning valve related to pressurizing Orion’s hatch discovered during a December 2025 countdown test.
Avionics used during Artemis 1 have already been rehabbed for use in Artemis 2. The Orion capsule’s heat shield was mated to the craft in June 2023. Then the European Space Agency service module was linked to the Orion module in October 2023. The SLS core stage, complete with its four RS-25 engines, along with the boosters, arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in July 2024.
The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule are now undergoing final integration at the Vehicle Assembly Building. The next major milestone is the rollout to Launch Pad 39B via the CT-2 crawler-transporter, followed by a “wet dress rehearsal” where 700,000 gallons of propellant will be loaded for a mock countdown.
Meanwhile, NASA and Navy personnel will continue prepping for an Artemis 2 splashdown that involves humans, not just sensor-laden mannequins.
The Artemis crew began their training in June 2023.
Artemis 2 mission profile: A trip to the Moon
Artemis 2 is currently slated to launch in February 2026 with specific opportunities on Feb. 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11. If these are missed, additional windows open in March and April. However, there’s always a chance that issues crop up that force delays.
After Artemis 2 launches and before the crew sets course for the Moon, the crew will spend a day or so carrying out systems checks in Earth orbit. During this stage, the crew will also test their ability to rendezvous with the SLS’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, which will serve as valuable practice for future docking maneuvers needed in later Artemis missions. The spacecraft’s orbit around Earth will be highly elliptical, ranging in altitude from about 115 miles (185 kilometers) to 46,000 miles (74,000 km) above Earth’s surface.
Once they receive approval to set course for the Moon, the four members of the Artemis 2 crew will embark on humanity’s first trip to the Moon’s neighborhood since 1972.
Artemis 2 will not land on or orbit the Moon, but will instead use several lunar-destination burns and course corrections to achieve a so-called free-return trajectory. This approach will bring the craft to within about 6,400 miles (10,000 km) of the Moon’s farside — and allow it to return to Earth even if the craft experiences an engine failure. The free-return trajectory will form a figure-eight around Earth and the Moon, and the Artemis 2 mission is expected to last about 10 days.
RELATED: How Artemis 2 will fly around the Moon
During Artemis 2, just one of the systems that the astronauts will test is a new, high-definition optical communication suite that uses lasers to send data and videos to Earth. And throughout the entire mission, the crew intends to test all systems and subsystems over a variety of different conditions.
NASA has not yet announced specific objectives for lunar science.
Artemis 3 mission profile
While Artemis 2 is the immediate focus, planning and preparing for the Artemis 3 crewed landing, which will likely take place in the Moon’s South Pole region, also moves forward. Following a December 2025 executive order from President Trump to return Americans to the Moon before the end of his second term, the mission is now targeted for mid-2027.
Artemis 3 aims to land a crew including the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon by utilizing SpaceX’s giant Starship launch vehicle as a human landing system (HLS). However, in October 2025, acting Administrator Sean Duffy announced during an interview on CNBC that NASA would reopen the contract, stating SpaceX was “behind.” NASA has already awarded a contract to Blue Origin to develop an additional lunar lander intended for future Artemis missions.
The plan for Artemis 3 is that the Orion crew capsule will take the astronauts to the Moon, while an uncrewed Starship launches to Earth orbit, refuels at an orbiting depot, then heads to the Moon. The Artemis 3 crew will then transfer from Orion to Starship, land on and explore the lunar surface, and return via Starship to Orion for the flight home. NASA has announced candidate landing sites for Artemis 3 in the Moon’s South Pole region, and working groups are considering the relative merits of each potential site.
But 2026 is set to be a pivotal year for Starship, as SpaceX will attempt its first orbital propellant transfers — a capability never before demonstrated, and one that will be necessary to fuel the depot and subsequently Starship HLS. An uncrewed lunar landing is another prerequisite before the crewed Artemis 3 mission.
In October 2024, Axiom Space revealed the flight design for its new lunar space suits — an improvement over the bulky Apollo Moon-walking suits. Beyond improved flexibility and insulation, the so-called Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Units (or AxEMUs) include a few other innovations, such as a rear-entry hatch that allows the astronaut to put on their own suit without help, and bigger helmets equipped with a camera and lights.
The Artemis program presses forward
Additional Artemis developments include the creation of a new Moon to Mars Program Office at NASA Headquarters in March 2023. The office, NASA said in a release, will concentrate “on hardware development, mission integration, and risk management functions…” for Orion, SLS, the lunar lander and more, as well planning for Gateway and future missions to Mars. In December 2025, Jared Isaacman was confirmed as the new NASA administrator, taking over leadership as the program inches closer to launch.
In the midst of numerous budget woes and uncertainty at NASA, Artemis has continued to receive bipartisan support. When President Trump released his proposed 2026 budget in the summer of 2025, it promised to “enable an enduring Artemis campaign.” Despite that promise, the proposed budget contained 24 percent cuts to NASA at large and 47 percent cuts to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Those cuts included the cancellation of both the spacecraft Orion and the Space Launch System after Artemis 4 and a shift towards commercial launch providers.
That budget proposal was rejected by both sides of the aisle in Congress and the science community. When Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4, an amendment to the legislation introduced by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) provided NASA with additional funding beyond the standard fiscal year 2025 budget. This extra money — around $9.9 billion — was designated to support programs like Artemis, the Space Launch System (SLS), and Orion through 2032. Then, on Jan. 15, 2026, the Senate passed an appropriations bill fully funding NASA with a $24.4 billion budget, rejecting the cuts proposed by President Trump
