Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
NASA Moon

NASA Launches Artemis II Astronauts Around the Moon (nasa.gov) 188

NASA's Artemis II mission has launched four astronauts around the moon and back, marking humanity's first crewed lunar voyage in 53 years and the first test flight of NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) with people on board. Five minutes into the flight, Commander Reid Wiseman saw the team's target: "We have a beautiful moonrise, we're headed right at it," he said from the capsule. The Associated Press reports: Artemis II set sail from the same Florida launch site that sent Apollo's explorers to the moon so long ago. The handful still alive cheered this next generation's grand adventure as the Space Launch System rocket thundered into the early evening sky, a nearly full moon beckoning some 248,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away.

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman led the charge into space with "Let's go to the moon!" accompanied by pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen. It was the most diverse lunar crew ever with the first woman, person of color and non-U.S. citizen riding in NASA's new Orion capsule.

Carrying three Americans and one Canadian, the 32-story rocket rose from NASA's Kennedy Space Center where tens of thousands gathered to witness the dawn of this new era. Crowds also jammed the surrounding roads and beaches, reminiscent of the Apollo moonshots in the 1960s and '70s. It is NASA's biggest step yet toward establishing a permanent lunar presence.
Visit NASA's Artemis II Launch Day blog for the latest updates.

Developing...

NASA Launches Artemis II Astronauts Around the Moon

Comments Filter:
  • by codevark ( 1070362 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2026 @07:30PM (#66073112)
    ..said everyone in human history. Good luck, and thanks for all the fish.
  • by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2026 @08:12PM (#66073154)

    I had just turned five years old when the Apollo 17 mission happened. Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that I would be 58 years old when humans finally decided to go back, but here we are. Makes me sad.

    • by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2026 @08:41PM (#66073190)
      The Apollo astronauts ate all the cheese, there was no reason to return.
      • No, no. For years mankind thought he moon was made of cheese, and in the 1960's mankind spent a decade and billions of dollars to develop a rocket to go there only to discover it was just a big rock. Mankind hasn't been back since.

        "Ah, the power of cheese!"

        (Anyone else remember that commercial?)

    • Re:Five years old (Score:5, Interesting)

      by caseih ( 160668 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2026 @08:56PM (#66073210)

      Back in 2019 on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, someone put up a fantastic web site to play back the mission in real time. Complete with actual radio and mission control comms and telemetry data. https://apolloinrealtime.org/ [apolloinrealtime.org]. Such an amazing historical data trove. I spent several days listening in real time to the flight unfold from launch to moon landing, to splash down. Even though I knew this was just playing back recordings from 50 years ago, and knew the outcome, it was a neat experience and it filled me with wonder and excitement at what was being accomplished as it were. I remember going outside and lookup up at the moon and thinking about people being on it, as someone in 1969 would have done.

      Fast forward now to Artemis II and I have such mixed feelings about it, and the space program in general. Anyway I wish them a safe and uneventful journey.

      • by dargaud ( 518470 )
        Gene Kranz's book "Failure is not an option" is one of the best reads a geek can have; it's about all the technical problems they had during the Apollo project and how they solved them.
        • Gene Kranz's book "Failure is not an option" is one of the best reads a geek can have; it's about all the technical problems they had during the Apollo project and how they solved them.

          I was talking with the wife about just this. It started with a TV reporter saying while people were watching the launch, he believed the most important thing was watching the observers, he got a little emotional about a woman hugging her daughter, and telling the girl that nothing will be impossible for her.

          I wonder if he knows just how many geeks like me scoffed, I wanted to tell him that there are hundreds of places telling girls that they have no boundaries, and no limitations. Don't need to have bill

          • Commander Reid Wiseman and the other mission specialist Jeremy Hansen are irrelevant. Just camp followers for the more important crew members

            The white male members of the crew have the least amount of space experience with Jeremy Hansen not having a full day in space yet. I suppose people could complain about the crew having a token white guy as he has no background in engineering unlike the rest of the crew.

    • by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Yep. Roughly the same age and was sure back then that we'd have a permanent habitat on the moon by 2000.

    • by Bongo ( 13261 )

      I had just turned five years old when the Apollo 17 mission happened. Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that I would be 58 years old when humans finally decided to go back, but here we are. Makes me sad.

      When the moon was blown out of orbit in 1999, taking the Alphans with it, it also created a rupture in space-time here on Earth, which is why we are all living the alternate version where we never returned to the moon.

  • "Pow, Alice, straight to the moon!"
    • "Pow, Alice, straight to the moon!"

      Actually, it still is. Just that it is women abusing men. Google Women find abusing men funny.

      • It's not funny, but we should stop associating domestic violence with just men abusing women. It's people abusing people. Turns out same sex couples do it too, and women are twice as likely to use a weapon.
  • A man walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Hey, you just missed it!" The man sez, "Naw", and waves his phone, which has the same image of the big stack on fire as the bar's 72".

  • Dusting off my copy of Apollo 13. Godspeed, crew.

  • by Nicholas Grayhame ( 10502767 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2026 @10:08PM (#66073278)

    It was the most diverse lunar crew ever with the first woman, person of color and non-U.S. citizen riding in NASA's new Orion capsule.

    Stephen Miller is gonna have a tremendous fit.

    • by drnb ( 2434720 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2026 @11:23PM (#66073364)

      It was the most diverse lunar crew ever with the first woman, person of color and non-U.S. citizen riding in NASA's new Orion capsule.

      Stephen Miller is gonna have a tremendous fit.

      The person of color has 3 masters degrees in engineering and science, and is a naval aviator who flew F/A-18 and E/A-18, a served on the International Space Station.

      The woman has a masters in EE and 328 days of space flight logged.

      These are not diversity hires.

      • by Tyler Durden ( 136036 ) on Thursday April 02, 2026 @12:26AM (#66073416)

        Indeed. And yet Stephen Miller is still gonna have a tremendous fit. Probably more so.

      • by Nicholas Grayhame ( 10502767 ) on Thursday April 02, 2026 @02:59AM (#66073544)

        The person of color has 3 masters degrees in engineering and science, and is a naval aviator who flew F/A-18 and E/A-18, a served on the International Space Station. The woman has a masters in EE and 328 days of space flight logged.

        so, just because it's a person of color, or a woman, we have to list their degrees and qualifications when they get a job? so, just because it's a person of color, or a woman, we have to be afraid they are unqualified? so, just because it's a person of color, or a woman that means they're stupid and the only way they got the job is because of the color of their skin or the absence of a Y chromosome in their genes?

        it's the other way around: just because it's a person of color, or a woman that means they had to work much harder to get their job. I see you didn't list the degrees and qualifications of the white men. I guess just by being a white man that means you're automatically qualified. I must have missed legacy admissions being outlawed

        These are not diversity hires.

        I never made such a stupid statement.

        • I think you're missing the issue. That their sex or ethnicity is being noted instead of their qualifications signifies a problem. The irrelevant physical traits are given prominence over their character and accomplishments. That focus evinces a deep-set racism and sexism, or else those irrelevant traits would not be noteworthy.
        • I see you didn't list the degrees and qualifications of the white men. I guess just by being a white man that means you're automatically qualified. I must have missed legacy admissions being outlawed

          The white men on this crew have the least space experience of the four with Jeremy Hansen not having spent a whole day in space yet so I could say he is the token white guy. Christina Koch has almost as much space experience as the rest of the crew.

          • Reid Wiseman (Mission Commander): Captain, US Navy pilot, Masters in Systems Engineering, 165 days in space
          • Jeremy Hansen (Mission Specialist): Colonel, Royal Canadian Air Force pilot, Masters in Physics, 15 hours in space
          • Victor Glover (Pilot): Captain, US Navy p
        • by drnb ( 2434720 )

          The person of color has 3 masters degrees in engineering and science, and is a naval aviator who flew F/A-18 and E/A-18, a served on the International Space Station. The woman has a masters in EE and 328 days of space flight logged.

          so, just because it's a person of color, or a woman, we have to list their degrees and qualifications when they get a job?

          NASA's crew website high lights their qualifications. The politicized post you made mentioned only diversity, potentially creating a misleading impression. I corrected that.

          These are not diversity hires.

          I never made such a stupid statement.

          Your politicized post would leave some readers with that impression. I corrected that.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday April 02, 2026 @04:49AM (#66073604) Homepage Journal

        I'm sure Miller thinks that any qualifications they have were just the result of DEI and not hard work.

        You can't reason with people like that. It's like religion, they just invent another story to explain why anything contradictory to their belief is actually confirmation of it.

      • The person of color has 3 masters degrees in engineering and science, and is a naval aviator who flew F/A-18 and E/A-18, a served on the International Space Station. The woman has a masters in EE and 328 days of space flight logged.

        These are not diversity hires.

        Exactly! One does not become an astronaut as a diversity initiative. You have to be very qualified. If you are not, people die in space. Glover and Koch are damn well qualified, and it is an insult to claim they are not - which includes the "people of color" and female astronauts that came before them.

    • Can we stop pretending that America is still stuck in the 1960's? The overwhelming majority of Americans no longer have a Jim Crow mindset, and no longer regard as remarkable when a woman or "person of color" (i.e., an ordinary person) does something that white people have been doing for years. Diversity is ordinary now, and has been for the past few decades.

      Diversity is like a religion with some people - no matter how much you (Americans) repent, you are still a sinner and in need of grace and forgive

  • "so, just because it's a person of color, or a woman, we have to list their degrees and qualifications when they get a job?

    Unfortunately, yes. That is the direct consequence of DEI. If you hire some people due to their gender, or race, or whatever? Guess what, you call the qualifications of *all* such people into question.

Dealing with the problem of pure staff accumulation, all our researches ... point to an average increase of 5.75% per year. -- C.N. Parkinson

Working...