Artemis II's Historic Lunar Flyby: Was NASA's $90 Billion Return to the Moon a Giant Leap or a Costly Detour?
On April 1, 2026, NASA launched Artemis II from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket, sending astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen on a roughly 10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon, the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Orion capsule carried the crew farther from Earth than any humans since Apollo, looping around the far side of the Moon without landing, before splashing down safely off the California coast on April 11, 2026. The mission notched several firsts: Christina Koch became the first woman to fly beyond low Earth orbit, Victor Glover the first Black astronaut to do so, and Jeremy Hansen the first non-American to leave low Earth orbit. It followed years of delays and ballooning costs, with critics citing the broader Artemis program's roughly $90 billion price tag, even as polls found about 97% of Americans still supported the program. The flight is widely framed as the opening act of a new US-China lunar race, with NASA officials openly warning China could land its own astronauts on the Moon before the US completes its planned Artemis III landing later this decade.
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April 6, 2026 - The Artemis II crew has begun the historic flyby of the moon, marking the first time humans have seen the far side of the lunar surface. ... I believe it should have been “the entire far side of the lunar surface in one viewing” (or similar), due to Artemis II’...
April 1, 2026 - Humanity is headed back to the lunar surface for the first time in more than a half century — but first, a flyby. Four astronauts will orbit the moon during NASA's Artemis II mission , set to launch the Orion spacecraft from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in...
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