Artemis II: NASA’s Daring 2026 Moon Mission – First Crewed Lunar Orbit in 50 Years
Mission Overview: Artemis II and Its Significance Artemis II is poised to be a historic mission, rekindling human exploration beyond Earth orbit after half a century. It is the second mission in NASA’s Artemis program and the first that will carry astronauts. In essence, Artemis II is a lunar flyby: the crew will venture around the Moon and return to Earth without landing spacepolicyonline.com. The mission builds directly on the uncrewed Artemis I flight (Nov–Dec 2022), which tested the enormous SLS rocket and Orion capsule around the Moon and back. Artemis I was deemed a success, but engineers learned vital lessons – notably about Orion’s heat shield, which ablated more than expected spacepolicyonline.com. Armed