On April 1, 2026, the Orion spacecraft took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT to kick off NASA’s Artemis II mission: An approximately 10-day flight coursed to slingshot around the Moon and back, marking the first time humans have left Earth to travel to deep space since the series of U.S. Apollo missions that ended in 1972. This is the first part of a series of missions with the ultimate goal of building humanity’s first base on the Moon. The crew of four astronauts taking part in this historic endeavor consists of pilot Victor Glover, mission specialists Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch, and commander Reid Wiseman.
This follows a flawless five minute and 50 second engine burn known as tarantula injection (TLI) which, as according to Nasa’s Dr Lori Glaze, propelled the spacecraft on a journey that is expected to carry humans farther from Earth than anyone else in all of history at an estimated 4,700 miles (7,600 km) beyond the Moon before its gravity swings them back on the course home.
Planetary geologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Kelsey Young, who is leading the lunar-observation team for the mission, explains how a laying of eyes on the Moon itself may reveal much more information quicker than is possible when analyzing photographs of it from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that has been mapping the Moon since 2009. She argues that the human visual system is attuned to pick up on subtle differences in color, brightness, and other changes that would take years of analyzing images to uncover — pointing to Apollo 17’s geologist and astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who spotted orange-tinged soil on the Moon’s surface that turned out to be volcanic glass beads from ancient eruptions.
During Artemis II, a series of experiments and tests will be conducted, including exploring how deep-space travel has effects on human health due to studies of astronauts on short-duration space flights, or in low Earth orbit on space stations experiencing health issues such as an increase in the risk of cancer and vision problems. This includes the private space mission Inspiration 4 which had launched in 2021 and was led by the now head of NASA, Jared Isaacman, where the crew’s telomeres (the protective ends of chromosomes) experienced a changing of lengths. Since the Artemis II crew will mark the first time humans have exposed themselves to deep-space radiation beyond the protective magnetic field of Earth since the conclusion of the Apollo programme, radiation sensors placed throughout the capsule’s cabin will be used to measure exposure throughout the mission. On top of this, the astronauts gave both saliva and blood samples before the mission and will repeat the process after returning to enable researchers to look for alternation to the immune and other body systems.
Perhaps the most cutting-edge health study to be conducted is the ‘organ on a chip experiment’, where researchers asked each of the crew members to donate platelets from their blood prior to flight that enabled the extraction, isolation, and freezing of immature bone marrow cells naturally occurring in the bloodstream. By thawing and placing these cells onto two chips sizing around a USB drive for each astronaut, one will be taken into space on the mission while the other will remain on Earth — the goal being to compare the both chips between each crew member to investigate if the cells sent space-bound experienced a greater degree of DNA damage or signs of alteration. If this method proves to be successful, future deep-space missions may be able to fly with chips containing cells from future astronaut candidates to get an idea of what could happen if they were to take the journey.
Around the sixth day of the Artemis II mission when cruising beyond the Moon, the astronauts on board will see a total solar eclipse — Earth hanging off to the side as the typically concealed halo of the Moon blocking the sun shines. Crew member Jeremy Hansen remarked how “humanity has once again shown what we are capable of,” that “it’s your hopes for the future that carry us now on this journey around the Moon.”
