NASA has completed the final preparations for its Artemis II mission, set to launch as early as April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center. This mission will be the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program, taking four astronauts on a roughly 10-day journey around the Moon. It will also mark the first time humans have travelled beyond low-Earth orbit since the Apollo missions. The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The mission will be launched aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and will test the Orion spacecraft’s life-support systems with humans onboard for the first time. The mission will test critical systems, including emergency procedures, radiation protection and advanced communication technologies such as laser-based data transmission. The Artemis programme is part of NASA’s broader effort to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon and build capabilities for future missions to Mars.
