Artemis II has made history as the 4-astronaut crew completed a successful 10-day loop around the Moon in April 2026, traveling further than any human before. By testing Orion and SLS, they officially started the next era of space exploration missions.
Houston, We have liftoff
On April 1, 2026, NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft blasted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft crew consisted of astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. It was the first manned flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 (1972).
The crew traveled over 695,000 miles from launch to splashdown and passed within 4,070 miles of the moon’s surface. The crew reached a maximum distance of 252,760 miles from Earth, about 4,100 miles farther than Apollo 13. For comparison, it would take 5 months of consecutive driving with no stops to reach.
The Bigger Picture:
The mission brought the first woman, first person of color, and the first Canadian to travel to the lunar vicinity
Artemis II was the first test for the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems with humans aboard, helping future missions potentially go beyond the moon
With the help of Artemis II’s massive success, Artemis III, which will test docking capabilities of the Orion spacecraft with commerical lunar landers like the SpaceX Starship
Test Drive
As the first crewed mission of the Artemis program, it heavily relies on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built, which utilizes four RS-25 engines and twin solid rocket boosters to achieve the thrust required to send the Orion spacecraft toward the Moon. Key technological advancements include:
Advanced Life Support Systems: Unlike the Apollo era, Orion is engineered to sustain a four-person crew for a 10-day mission, providing advanced air revitalization, temperature control, and environmental monitoring.
Next-Generation Avionics: The crew operates the spacecraft using high-tech glass cockpit displays, featuring redundant, lightweight computers capable of processing vast amounts of data for navigation and flight control.
High-Speed Heat Shield: The ablative heat shield is designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of returning from the Moon (around 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it splashes down at speeds exceeding 25,000 mph)
European Service Module: A key international collaboration, this module provides power through solar arrays, propulsion for maneuvers, and water/oxygen storage.
The Bigger Picture:
Design changes addressing heat shield issues are planned for the next Artemis III mission, the one that actually lands on the surface of the moon. Basically, Artemis II was proof the car (or spacecraft) works. Artemis III parks it on the moon.
Artemis II science operations will lay the foundation for safe and efficient human exploration of the Moon, and even Mars with the information and data the crew collected last week.
Setting a new human spaceflight record for the farthest a human has traveled from Earth, the spacecraft orbited the Moon, validating the complex mechanics required for future lunar landings and space exploration
One more thing: The mission’s zero-gravity indicator, a small plush mascot that floats freely in the cabin to signal when the crew reaches weightlessness was “Rise,” designed by 8-year-old Lucas Ye of Mountain View, California. It depicts the Moon wearing Earth as a baseball cap. Flew 695,000 miles. Designed by a third grader. Pretty good week for Lucas.
Official zero-gravity indicator, “Rise”
that’s all for this week, catch the next one on sunday
Until next time,
the bigger picture
“zoom out, see what matters”
