Astronauts have not visited our nearest celestial neighbor since 1972. That is when NASA astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt spent three days on the moon earlier than rejoining Apollo 17 crewmate NASA astronaut Ron Evans aboard their command module in lunar orbit. After two extra days circling the moon, the trio ignited their engine on a return trajectory again to Earth. As they flew away, theirs turned the final units of eyes to see the moon up shut.
Now, after many years of ever-elongating timelines, evolving mission frameworks and years of delays, NASA is prepared to return. The U.S. house company’s Artemis program faces its second mission in 2026, and it is going to be the primary to hold a crew of astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft. The Artemis 2 mission is designed to fly its crew as soon as across the moon earlier than returning them to Earth over the course of about 10 days, throughout which the astronauts will turn out to be the primary in a technology to see the moon up shut.
By means of its collection of deliberate Artemis missions, NASA plans to ascertain a everlasting outpost on the moon. From there, the company hopes to develop and mature the applied sciences wanted to develop deeper into the photo voltaic system to locations like Mars.
Loads of U.S. spaceflight discourse this previous 12 months has centered on when NASA will get boots on the lunar floor, and whether or not U.S. astronauts will land on the moon’s southern polar area earlier than a gaggle of Chinese language taikonauts crops their flag there first. When President Trump’s fiscal 12 months 2026 price range proposal was launched, the administration put a stronger emphasis on NASA’s human exploration of house — regardless of chopping NASA’s funding by practically 1 / 4 and its science packages just about in half. That emphasis, although, put a highlight on the Artemis program and invited deeper scrutiny of NASA’s launch system and lunar lander growth.
Beneath NASA’s present plan, Artemis 2 and three depend on the company’s SLS rocket to launch its Orion spacecraft to cislunar house, the place it can dock with the Gateway house station, for switch to a lunar lander for the final leg right down to the floor. NASA’s Human Touchdown Providers (HLS) contract for that automobile was awarded to SpaceX for a model of their Starship automobile presently being developed to move Artemis 3 astronauts right down to the moon’s floor — a controversial choice which elicited business pushback and, extra not too long ago, one which NASA has begun backpedalling on.
Criticisms of each SLS and Starship have referred to as this system’s structure and timeline into query. Earlier than its first launch in 2022, SLS spent greater than a decade in growth at a price of practically $50 billion since 2006.
Within the time it took to show the SLS design schematics to a completely realized and assembled rocket, SpaceX launched the world to dependable rocket reusability — not one thing SLS was designed for. And, with the profitable restoration and relaunch of SpaceX’s latest Tremendous Heavy booster this 12 months, some have questioned whether or not SLS’s $4 billion-per-launch price ticket is probably the most cost-effective strategy to ship Orion to orbit.
Starship is one other story. SpaceX appears to have labored out a lot of the kinks growing the Tremendous Heavy booster chargeable for launching Starship — although a current mishap of the booster’s newest model did rupture throughout a pressurization take a look at. The corporate has efficiently caught three Tremendous Heavy boosters utilizing the enormous “Mechazilla” chopstick-like arms connected to the rocket’s launch tower, and managed to refly a type of boosters throughout one among Starship’s 2025 take a look at flights. Starship, nonetheless, didn’t have nearly as good a 12 months.
Of its 5 launches in 2025, Starship solely accomplished its mission goals on the ultimate two. The event delays have raised considerations concerning the automobile’s readiness for Artemis 3, which NASA had hoped to launch in 2027, however inner SpaceX paperwork obtained by Politico in November point out the corporate does not count on Starship to be prepared for that mission till 2028.
U.S. lawmakers, house business leaders and even former NASA directors have spoken out publicly in criticism of Starship’s delayed growth, and are elevating pink flags that such delays might hand management of the moon to China.
Throughout testimony earlier than the Senate Commerce Committee in September, former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine cautioned in opposition to positioning the Artemis program to turn out to be fully reliant on SpaceX for mission success. “Until one thing modifications, it’s extremely unlikely the USA will beat China’s projected timeline,” he stated.
That is an issue, consultants say. The U.S. and China are each eyeing the moon’s southern polar area to arrange camp, the place scientists imagine there’s an abundance of water ice — a precious useful resource that can be utilized to supply astronauts with every thing from appropriate ingesting water to rocket gasoline. It is also a matter of nationwide safety. “If our adversaries obtain dominant house capabilities, it might pose a profound threat to America,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stated throughout the Commerce Committee listening to at which Bridenstine testified.
NASA, too, is feeling the stress. Unhappy with SpaceX’s progress, performing company administrator Sean Duffy introduced in October that NASA was contemplating reopening the HLS contract to different bidders, together with Blue Origin, who objected to Starship’s choice over their Blue Moon lander, which is initially slated for Artemis 5. Now, NASA could determine to go along with whichever lander is prepared first, however SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has voiced skepticism over the competing firm’s capacity to qualify their lander earlier than SpaceX does so with Starship.
For its half, China’s lunar ambitions and timeline to attain them are about on par with the U.S., solely the velocity at which they’re growing the applied sciences to perform these objectives is shortly worrying these within the U.S. house business who see stalls in Artemis’ evolution.
The query nonetheless stays which nation will efficiently land astronauts (or taikonauts) again on the moon first, however there is no denying which nation would be the first to fly a crew to lunar house within the new millennium.
After Artemis 1, NASA named the crew of the upcoming Artemis 2 flight. The mission shall be flown by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman as Artemis 2 commander, Victor Glover as pilot, and Christina Koch and Canadian House Company astronaut Jeremy Hansen as mission specialists. The quartet has spent the final three years coaching for each facet of their flight across the moon, with a serious ramp-up over the previous 12 months that has included NASA’s broader Artemis staff.
“The consolidation and momentum that is constructing within the wider staff — the flight management staff, the launch management staff — we’re firing on all cylinders with these guys doing drawback fixing, answering questions that nobody is aware of the true reply to,” Koch advised House.com in an interview. “Each individual that walks into each room is simply able to contribute probably the most that they’ll and to get to the proper reply as a staff,” she stated.
Koch and the opposite members of the Artemis 2 crew are wanting to launch on their mission, and if NASA’s present schedule holds, they might get that chance as early as February 2026. NASA is concentrating on no sooner than Feb. 5 for the primary Artemis 2 launch window, and will roll the mission’s accomplished SLS rocket from the Automobile Meeting Constructing at NASA’s Kennedy House Heart, to Launch Advanced-39B as early as January. In the event that they run into one other delay, the house company has decided further launch home windows within the months to observe, via April.
As soon as the day of their launch does arrive, the Artemis 2 crew will board the Orion spacecraft and trip SLS into Earth’s orbit for a mission that can final roughly ten days. Ought to the launch go easily and checkouts of Orion’s programs whereas in orbit come again nominal, a translunar injection burn of SLS’s higher stage will propel Orion right into a free-return trajectory across the moon, slingshotting the spacecraft across the moon and again to Earth on a course within the form of a figure-eight. The trajectory does not absolutely place Orion in lunar orbit, nevertheless it ensures the spacecraft and crew’s return to Earth no matter any anomalies they may encounter across the moon.
Whereas the principle goal of Artemis 2 is to place Orion via its paces on its first mission carrying astronauts, the crew may also conduct a collection of science experiments. A few of that analysis includes the astronauts themselves, who will turn out to be their very own biomedical topics to collect in-flight knowledge on the consequences the human physique experiences past low Earth orbit for the primary time since Apollo, together with investigations into issues like radiation publicity and the immune system.
Along with humanity’s long-awaited return to the moon, Artemis 2 is breaking floor in different historic methods as nicely. Relying on when it launches, Orion’s flight across the moon could take the Artemis 2 crew farther from Earth than any earlier crewed mission — doubtlessly breaking the document set throughout Apollo 13.
Koch and Glover may also be making historical past in their very own proper, as the primary girl and first individual of colour to fly to the moon.
Thus, for all of the uncertainty surrounding Artemis’ long-term structure, Artemis 2 represents one thing far less complicated. It is going to ship people past low Earth orbit for the primary time in additional than half a century, reestablishing a functionality the U.S. at one time could have taken without any consideration.
Whether or not Artemis finally fulfills its promise of sustained lunar exploration, or is reshaped by politics, budgets and competitors with China, this system’s first crewed flight across the moon will mark a definitive turning level. In 2026, humanity is not simply planning to return to lunar house — it is truly going.
