Artemis 2

NASA launched four astronauts aboard spacecraft Orion, “Integrity”, on a mission known as Artemis 2 on April 1. According to NASA, the trip lasted nine days, one hour, and 32 minutes. Artemis touched down on April 10. 

Aboard this spacecraft was Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jermey Hansen. These astronauts were the first humans to travel to the moon in 54 years, and they set a world record for the farthest human travel in space. The maximum distance from Earth was approximately 252,756 miles. This surpassed the Apollo 13 mission by 4,105 miles.

During this mission, the crew put Orion through a series of tests to see how the ship handled deep space missions. The information will be used to advance space exploration in the future. 

The spaceship successfully completed a full flight around the entire moon. While they did this, the crew was not able to communicate with anyone from Earth for roughly 40 minutes. 

“Today, you’ve made history and made all of America really proud… There’s nothing like what you’re doing, circling around the Moon for the first time in more than half a century and breaking the all-time record for the farthest distance from planet Earth… You really are modern-day pioneers,” President Donald Trump said. 

The President later went on to invite the Artemis crew to the Oval Office. 

Jeremy Hansen, who was a mission specialist on Artemis 2, hopes that this mission will be the first of many.

“As we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration. We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear. But we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived,”Hansen said.

While the crew passed around the moon, they named a previously unnamed bright spot “Carroll”. This was named in honor of Carroll Wiseman, the wife of ship Commander Reid Wiseman. Carroll passed away in 2020 at 48 after a five year cancer battle. Another new crater was named “Integrity” after the Orion spacecraft.

In total, Orion and the crew traveled a total of 694,481 miles. During reentry, the spacecraft reached a top speed of nearly 35 times the speed of sound. Splashdown occurred on April 10th..

On April 6th, the Artemis 2 space crew viewed a total solar eclipse with nearly 54 minutes of totality. During this time, the moon was completely blocking the sun which gave the crew the ability to see the Sun's corona, which is the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere. The eclipse was not visible on Earth. 

The information that NASA received from the Artemis 2 mission is said to help on NASA’s future missions; and one day Mars. 

“With the Artemis program, we’ve been able to keep going on what we call a Moon to Mars strategy. That’s allowing us to develop the capabilities – some that we’re testing on the International Space Station for Mars, some that we’re testing for the Moon – but it will allow us to do that together,” director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Vanessa E. Wyche said during her “Why Artemis Changes Everything” speech. 

Artemis 2 landed on April 10, 2026 at 8-07 EDT. The spacecraft landed off the Pacific Coast of San Diego, California. After reentering Earth’s upper atmosphere, it took Orion less than 20 minutes to land.

“It was super cool. I think it was inspiring for future generations,” NHS freshman Audrey Dzamao said.