It had been more than 53 years since a human being had been beyond low Earth orbit. The last time, Apollo 17 splashed down in December 1972, and the Saturn V rockets stopped flying. For half a century, the moon remained at human-eye distance and human-touch impossibility.
On April 1, 2026, Artemis II changed that.
The Crew
Four astronauts — including the first woman, the first person of color, and the first Canadian to travel to the moon — launched aboard an Orion spacecraft on a free-return trajectory around the far side of the moon. The mission was a flyby, not a landing. The point was to prove the systems for the crewed lunar landings that follow.
The Record
On April 6, the crew reached a maximum distance of 252,756 miles (406,771 km) from Earth — farther than any human beings had ever traveled. Apollo 13's 1970 swing around the moon had held the record for 56 years.
What Comes Next
Artemis III, the planned crewed landing, follows. After half a century of waiting, the moon is back on the human itinerary.
If you were on the patio at Fuego the night of April 6 — yes, that bright thing in the sky had four people behind it.