Space Crew Set for First Moon Orbit in Decades

NASA is gearing up to send a crew of four astronauts on Artemis II, the first manned trip around the moon in over 50 years. The launch is slated for April 1, and after about eight minutes of flight the Orion capsule will leave Earth’s gravity. It will circle the planet before heading toward the moon, passing between 6 450 and 9 650 km from its surface before returning to Earth in a splash‑down. The whole journey will last roughly ten days, giving the team time to test Orion’s life‑support and other systems for future missions that aim to land astronauts on the moon by 2028.The team is led by commander Reid Wiseman, a Navy test pilot with two spacewalks and a 165‑day ISS mission. He is joined by pilot Victor Glover, the first Black astronaut to fly beyond low Earth orbit; mission specialist Christina Koch, who holds a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman and has performed six spacewalks; and Canadian Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first non‑US astronaut to visit lunar orbit. Together they bring decades of flight experience, engineering expertise and a diverse set of backgrounds that NASA says will be crucial for the success of Artemis II. The mission also marks a milestone in representation. It will be the first time that a woman, a Black person and a non‑American crew member travel to lunar orbit together. NASA’s message is that this diverse team embodies the idea of “out of many, one, ” reflecting the collaborative effort needed to push humanity farther into space. The crew’s journey will test Orion’s performance and validate systems that will be used on later missions, including the planned lunar landings. Their work will help pave the way for humans to travel to Mars in the coming decades.