From Apollo to Artemis: Nasa’s bid to rekindle lunar exploration

For the first time in half a century, Nasa is preparing to send astronauts back to the Moon. The Artemis programme, named after Apollo's twin sister, aims to rekindle human presence beyond Earth's orbit.

Its upcoming mission, Artemis II, is scheduled for no earlier than February 2026 and will carry four astronauts on a ten-day journey around the Moon and back. It will be the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The mission's goal is not to land on the Moon, but to test every system that would make future landings possible.

Riding atop the powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the Orion spacecraft will carry Nasa astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Their journey will take them farther from Earth than any human has ever travelled.

Artemis II is a crucial test of technology for Nasa. It follows Artemis I, an uncrewed test flight in 2022 that orbited the Moon and successfully returned to Earth, though not without challenges.

Engineers discovered that the heat shield of Orion's capsule had charred and peeled in chunks during re-entry. The issue has since been resolved, however.

Testing the path to return

Artemis II will mark the first time Nasa's SLS rocket carries humans. The spacecraft will orbit Earth, test its systems, and then perform a translunar injection to send the crew toward the Moon.

Over the following four days, the astronauts will experience deep space radiation and microgravity as they circle the far side of the Moon — beyond the reach of real-time communication with Earth.

The mission's purpose is more than exploration. It will gather vital data about how space affects the human body. Nasa scientists will study how radiation and microgravity influence astronauts' blood, sleep, and coordination. Tiny lab-grown organoids made from their cells will travel with them to record how living tissue responds to deep space conditions.

Artemis II will also test manual manoeuvres in space, as astronauts practise docking simulations essential for future missions. Every moment aboard Orion is designed to prepare for the next giant leap — Artemis III, the long-awaited return to the lunar surface.

But even if Artemis II succeeds, Nasa's path ahead remains steep. Artemis III depends on SpaceX's Starship Human Landing System, which must demonstrate complex refuelling and vertical landing capabilities before it can ferry astronauts to the Moon. While SpaceX's test flights have made progress, several have ended in fiery explosions. Nasa has stated that Artemis III will launch no earlier than mid-2027, but few expect that timeline to hold.

Promise and pressure

The Artemis programme is no secret to the world outside the US — China has declared its intention to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and has already tested a prototype lunar lander. This growing competition adds urgency and pressure to Nasa's efforts.

Artemis is ambitious but costly. Each SLS launch is estimated to cost around two billion US dollars. This has sparked debates in Congress over the programme's sustainability and whether Nasa should rely more on commercial launch providers in the future. For now, the project remains funded, but political and financial uncertainties linger, thanks to Donald Trump's surprise budget cuts.

Beyond national prestige, Nasa must also demonstrate scientific value. The agency aims to build a permanent presence through a planned lunar space station called Gateway, which will orbit the Moon and serve as a base for future missions.

Scheduled to begin deployment in 2027, Gateway will host international crews and experiments, marking a shift from the Apollo era's short-term visits to a new phase of sustained exploration.

Still, the Artemis effort faces a question as old as the space race itself: can technological ambition outpace the political clock? The Apollo missions succeeded under intense Cold War competition and unified national focus.

Today, Nasa operates in a world where long-term projects must survive changing administrations, shifting budgets, and commercial dependencies.

Artemis II will therefore serve as both a technical and symbolic test. If successful, it will reaffirm the US's capacity for deep space exploration and inspire renewed global interest in lunar science.

If delayed or flawed, it could embolden rivals and erode confidence in Nasa's ability to lead humanity's return to the Moon.

More than five decades ago, the Apollo astronauts captured the world's imagination with their images of Earth rising above a barren lunar horizon.

Now, as Artemis prepares for flight, the same question echoes once more — can humanity, through Nasa, land a second term on the Moon?