NASA's Artemis II launched Wednesday, sending four astronauts toward the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. The crew: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, riding inside the Orion capsule atop the Space Launch System rocket.
This is not a landing. Artemis II is a 10-day crewed lunar orbit mission, the first human flight of SLS, and a direct prerequisite to the Artemis III surface landing currently targeted for no earlier than 2028. The mission had already slipped once, delayed in February before reaching this launch date.
The full Verge story is worth reading for the mission timeline, the orbital mechanics of the lunar flyby, and the program context that explains why this flight, not the landing, is the one that actually proves the hardware works.
[READ ORIGINAL →]