The American space agency NASA has announced that it plans to send a spacecraft with a crew of four people on a ten-day journey around the Moon in February 2026. This will be the second phase of the Artemis program, which aims to land a person on the Moon and ensure a long-term presence there.
NASA previously announced that the launch of the Artemis-2 mission would take place no later than April 2026, but now the agency aims to carry it out earlier. The BBC reports that the last time a person was sent to the Moon was in 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission.
The project plans to send four people into space: Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch (NASA), and Jeremy Hansen (Canadian Space Agency). Although they will not land on the Moon, they will become the first crew to go beyond Earth's orbit for the first time since Apollo 17.
According to NASA management, if everything goes according to plan, the launch window for the mission could open as early as February 5, 2026. However, as NASA's deputy administrator for administration, Lakisha Hawkins noted, their main priority remains ensuring safety.
"Together, we will enter the first ranks of history," she said during a press conference.
According to the director responsible for the rocket's launch, the astronaut's extremely powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is almost ready for launch.
