NASA targeting early Feb. for Artemis II mission to Moon
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NASA officials on Tuesday said the agency's first crewed flight in its Artemis program - a trip around the moon and back - is on track for launch in April and could potentially be moved up to February.
In September 2025, NASA declared that it was in the midst of a "Golden Age of innovation and exploration," and that a huge part of this effort is the upcoming Artemis II flight. It will be crewed by a quartet of astronauts: the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen along with Christina Koch,
NASA safety advisers say they doubt the lunar lander version of SpaceX’s Starship will be ready to support the Artemis 3 mission as planned in 2027.
The U.S. and China are in a sprint toward manned missions to the lunar surface by the end of this decade, with sights on 2029 as a common deadline.