NASA's Artemis II mission sets the stage for history! Launching on February 6, a squad of astronauts embarks on a jaw-dropping 685,000-mile journey around the moon and back. It's the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years, marking a thrilling new chapter in space exploration!

This high-stakes mission will test NASA’s formidable Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for only the second time. On board the Orion capsule, four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen—are set to push boundaries. Koch becomes the first woman, and Glover, the first person of color, to venture beyond low Earth orbit!

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman declared it “one of the most important human spaceflight missions” in recent history. The mission paves the path to the ambitious Artemis III, which aims to land near the lunar south pole next year!

Space experts are abuzz! John Honeycutt of the Artemis team beamed at a press briefing, exclaiming, “We are making history!” Meanwhile, former UK Space Agency head David Parker described it as a leap towards the dream of sustained lunar exploration and Mars missions!

But there's tension in the cosmos! With rumors of a new space race against China, which eyes a lunar landing by 2030, the stakes are sky-high. Sean Duffy, ex-NASA acting administrator, defiantly declared, “We’re going to win.”

The engineering marvel, SLS, and Orion capsule stand nearly 100 meters tall and roar to life with the power to speed to the moon at 24,500 mph. First up? A grand rollout with NASA's gargantuan crawler-transporter set to transport the rocket to its launchpad!

Pre-launch drills are intense. Any hiccups, from bent cables to pesky leaks, and it's back to the drawing board. The countdown to launch depends on every intricate detail going off without a hitch.

Incredible maneuvers lie ahead. The Orion capsule will loop Earth, detach, and make history with breathtaking flybys of the lunar surface. Safety remains paramount. "We’ll fly when ready," promised Honeycutt.

This venture beyond Earth’s embrace could still serve surprises, as Artemis II’s flight director Jeff Radigan warns of the test flight’s unpredictability. It's a race against the elements and time, with 14 backup launch dates lined up before mid-April.

Over 230,000 miles from Earth, voyaging the dark side of the moon, these astronauts will test emergency protocols and a crucial radiation shelter. It’s space exploration at its nail-biting finest! Parker summed it up perfectly, “Every rocket launch is a nail-biter!”

Key Takeaways

• NASA's Artemis II rewrites the lunar exploration script!

• New space race looms—will NASA outpace China to the moon?

• Astronauts embark on a historic trip beyond Earth’s orbit!

  

Adapted by ASEAN Now from The Guardian 2026-01-17

 

 

It was a great report until they had to spoil it by mentioning the first woman and the first person of colour. People can't just be people.

4 hours ago, CharlieH said:

“We are making history!”

I thought they made this history almost 60 years ago ?

12 minutes ago, johng said:

I thought they made this history almost 60 years ago ?

Yes, but this time it's different as they'll not be bothering with the landing on the moon bit.

More of a drive by selfie than a moon mission.

SpaceX's Starship with it reusable components and heavier lift capacity is thoroughly better than this Boeing made boondogle that is cobbled together with leftover parts of the Space Shuttle. There is a lot to dislike about Elon, but when it comes to rockets, he's a visionary and nobody matches him.

10 hours ago, Kinnock said:

Yes, but this time it's different as they'll not be bothering with the landing on the moon bit.

More of a drive by selfie than a moon mission.

It's not different.

Apollo 8 went to the moon with 3 crew, orbited it 10 times and returned to Earth in December 1968

Apollo 10 was a "dress rehearsal" for Apollo 11, in May 1969, when they flew the Apollo Lunar Module to within 14 km of the moon's surface.

How is history being made?

15 hours ago, CharlieH said:

history!

jaw-dropping

thrilling

high-stakes

the first

most important

ambitious

abuzz!

leap towards the dream

intense

gargantuan

Incredible

breathtaking

Incredible

nail-biting

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, must be a hub of some kind!

NASA is obsolete.

Here's what an African-American immigrant rocket scientist and brain surgeon can do....

Where are the cost-obsessed Republicans on this? Absolutely no mention of the waste of taxpayer dollars, which would be their primary focus on this announcement if the Dems were behind it.

The US is a poor country that cannot provide health care to it's citizens, and the danger is that it's wealthiest people (and the foreigners who buy their American privilege (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-gold-card-creates-interest-decisions-for-foreign-nationals/ar-AA1TBFN6) ) may become slightly less wealthy.

Big win for the SpaceX guy who is smart enough to not ride one of his own rockets.

MAGA, baby!

13 hours ago, John Drake said:

SpaceX's Starship with it reusable components and heavier lift capacity is thoroughly better than this Boeing made boondogle that is cobbled together with leftover parts of the Space Shuttle. There is a lot to dislike about Elon, but when it comes to rockets, he's a visionary and nobody matches him.

Quite a few of his rockets have been exploding lately.

8 hours ago, JensenZ said:

It's not different.

Apollo 8 went to the moon with 3 crew, orbited it 10 times and returned to Earth in December 1968

Apollo 10 was a "dress rehearsal" for Apollo 11, in May 1969, when they flew the Apollo Lunar Module to within 14 km of the moon's surface.

How is history being made?

That was 60 years ago when computers couldn't simulated a landing and nobody had done it before. Now with past experience and AI we still faff about.

It's space tourism and diversity signalling rather than real exploration.

20 hours ago, JensenZ said:

It was a great report until they had to spoil it by mentioning the first woman and the first person of colour. People can't just be people.

You have not seen it all; wait for the transgenders and the rest of the lot to show up at the ramp.

Given the details, apart from genderism and racial aspects, what else is new? Is NASA on a mission to find out, if the moon is still there after 50 years? Just wondering who pays for all this space odyseeing.

I assume it does not touch the US' "defense budget" of USD 892 billion. The goods in funny uniforms got talked down from their daydreaming of $961.6 billion for 2026! Well, it guess that this is OK as the Caracas excursion kidnapping a foreign head of state in the latter's capital came much cheaper than feared. No American life lost and only one wounded, nobody has to account for the dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban soldiers who lost their lives in the overnight visit.

Not being a French, but their "on vera" attitude might be the appropriate behaviour at the moment ;-)

24 minutes ago, Sydebolle said:

You have not seen it all; wait for the transgenders and the rest of the lot to show up at the ramp.

We haven't sent a President up yet!

15 minutes ago, Sydebolle said:

Given the details, apart from genderism and racial aspects, what else is new? Is NASA on a mission to find out, if the moon is still there after 50 years? Just wondering who pays for all this space odyseeing.

I assume it does not touch the US' "defense budget" of USD 892 billion. The goods in funny uniforms got talked down from their daydreaming of $961.6 billion for 2026! Well, it guess that this is OK as the Caracas excursion kidnapping a foreign head of state in the latter's capital came much cheaper than feared. No American life lost and only one wounded, nobody has to account for the dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban soldiers who lost their lives in the overnight visit.

Not being a French, but their "on vera" attitude might be the appropriate behaviour at the moment ;-)

The importance of the gender and racial aspects is to create heroes for those groups and inspire the future generations scientists and astronauts. But thats a long shot to convince some old men at a Asian forum :D

But for kids, heroes they can identify themselves with, is critical and essential important. So what you find ridiculous is of value for others, and especially USA where the education level seems to make a huge future drop as it stands right now compared to other leading countries.

What was our generation heroes who made us who we are today?

20 hours ago, JensenZ said:

It was a great report until they had to spoil it by mentioning the first woman and the first person of colour. People can't just be people.

Yes, the press always banging on about DEI and multiculturalism yet cant wait to mention colour and sex when it's referring to something good. If it's a bad happening, the details have to be dragged from them. Four astronauts, that's it.

21 hours ago, johng said:

I thought they made this history almost 60 years ago ?

Yes, a lot of people thought that at the time.

The real tragedy is that some people still believe it 😄.

24 minutes ago, boloaf said:

Yes, the press always banging on about DEI and multiculturalism yet cant wait to mention colour and sex when it's referring to something good. If it's a bad happening, the details have to be dragged from them. Four astronauts, that's it.

Enough with the devisive nonsense I hope it’s a great success and more to come…..safe journey!

1 hour ago, bunnydrops said:

We haven't sent a President up yet!

Shouldn't Tom Hanks be going? He did a great job getting Apollo 13 back safely.

Can someone keep a tally of how many threads DO NOT get diverted into something regarding gender transitioning? What's with you guys? When you go to sleep do you worry that you'll wake up with a different set of genitals? This is an obsession.

36 minutes ago, Watawattana said:

2 hours ago, bunnydrops said:

We haven't sent a President up yet!

Shouldn't Tom Hanks be going? He did a great job getting Apollo 13 back safely.

The main reason why Tom hanks shouldn't be involved

Exciting times..who's stirring the O2 tanks.............

8 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

Quite a few of his rockets have been exploding lately.

They learn more from failures than they do from successes. It's all a necessary part of progress.

51 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

They learn more from failures than they do from successes. It's all a necessary part of progress.

I'll remember that one next time I mess up at work .... or does this excuse only apply to rocket scientists?

13 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

Wow, must be a hub of some kind!

Anyone would think it's never been done before!

On 1/18/2026 at 12:05 PM, JensenZ said:

It was a great report until they had to spoil it by mentioning the first woman and the first person of colour. People can't just be people.

They forgot the Gay and transsexual...

On 1/18/2026 at 12:05 PM, JensenZ said:

It was a great report until they had to spoil it by mentioning the first woman and the first person of colour. People can't just be people.

Hope they're competent astronauts and not just DEI hires.

On 1/18/2026 at 12:09 PM, johng said:

I thought they made this history almost 60 years ago ?

The real question is how they can have a moon landing again without Stanley Kubrick?

Plenty of people in Hollywood are out of work now. So Nasa should be able to hire special effects technicians at low wages, which should help to cut down on costs on this so called moon mission...

8 minutes ago, roquefort said:

Hope they're competent astronauts and not just DEI hires.

This mission more closely resembles Apollo 8, which orbited the moon 10 times and then returned. Apollo 8 had three crew members: commander, command module pilot, and non-essential lunar module pilot.

This current mission has four crew members: commander, command module pilot, and non-essential yet diverse stunning DEI photo-op and non-essential yet diverse brave DEI photo-op.

10 minutes ago, redwood1 said:

The real question is how they can have a moon landing again without Stanley Kubrick?

Plenty of people in Hollywood are out of work now. So Nasa should be able to hire special effects technicians at low wages, which should help to cut down on costs on this so called moon mission...

Kubrick did a pretty good job. A few glaring errors but very impressive for the time.

I think Grok Imagine could probably do a better job now for $40 a month 😄.