NASA plans crewed Moon mission in 2026

NASA has said it intends to send four astronauts on a ten-day journey around the Moon in early 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission in more than half a century.

The flight, known as Artemis II, is the second in the agency's Artemis programme, which is designed to return humans to the Moon and eventually establish a sustained presence on its surface. The astronauts will not land but will travel beyond low Earth orbit, testing systems and preparing for a future mission that aims to put humans back on the lunar surface, according to NASA.

The US space agency had previously set April 2026 as its latest launch target, but officials are now aiming for an earlier date in February, according to a recent report by the BBC. The four-member crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. It will be the first mission to carry people beyond Earth's orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Although the Space Launch System rocket used for Artemis II appears similar to that of Artemis I, engineers have carried out upgrades to improve safety, reliability and performance. The first Artemis mission, an uncrewed flight launched in November 2022, lasted 25 days and saw a spacecraft orbit the Moon before returning to Earth. While generally successful, the mission revealed problems with the spacecraft's heatshield, which have since been addressed, mentioned NASA.

Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems integrate the SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket core stage with the solid rocket boosters onto mobile launcher 1 inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in March 2025. Image: Frank Michaux/NASA.

The mission's success will be critical in determining the timeline for Artemis III, which is intended to land astronauts on the lunar surface. NASA sees the Artemis programme as a step towards eventual crewed missions to Mars. The agency has presented Artemis II as a proving ground for technologies and operations that will be essential for long-term exploration beyond Earth.

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