NASA's Artemis II Mission to Orbit Moon in February 2026

NASA has announced that after a break of more than 50 years, it plans to carry out the first manned mission to the Moon, noting that the launch of the "Artemis II" program could be as early as February 2026. This will be a historic moment in the exploration of space by humanity. Four astronauts will participate in the mission: NASA representatives Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency. During the ten-day flight, they will not land on the Moon, but will orbit it, testing all the vital systems of the "Orion" spacecraft and the powerful SLS rocket system. This is an important preparatory stage for the next step of the "Artemis" program - a human landing on the lunar surface.

The mission has historical significance, as the astronauts will fly farther than any human has ever flown, passing the Moon by about 9,200 km. During the flight, it is planned to carry out a complex operation called a "space ballet," during which the astronauts will manually control the "Orion," testing the procedures for docking with a future landing module.

The astronauts will also become a kind of "human-test subject." Scientists will grow tissue samples, "organoids," from their blood samples, which will be compared with samples taken after the flight. This will allow for in-depth study of the effects of microgravity and radiation on the human body without endangering the astronauts.

The success of "Artemis II" will pave the way for the "Artemis III" mission, the goal of which is already to land on the Moon. However, experts are cautious about the timeline. They note that even in the case of a flawless course of this flight, the goal of landing on the Moon in mid-2027 may be too optimistic, as the SpaceX Starship landing module required for this still has a long way to go.